Khaled makes a living off maintaining mIRC, but the last new version came out in 2008.
Also, you still don't have to pay to use mIRC, also without a keygen, you can still use it after 30 days, so it's still a option you make yourself.
If you just keep distributing the .exe's I think many people won't even know and care it's open-source and will still pay.
Also I think that our community isn't at it's best, but I for sure know some people who are experienced with several languages, where I guess C/C++ is the most important one.
If mIRC goes open-source it will also be a learning oppertunity for many people, and eventually we could see what things could be improved.
