There are NO standard Instant Messager protocols, because all of them rely upon Central Servers with the goal of Earning Money through Advertisement Sales.
ICQ, AIM, Yahoo, MSN, etc ALL have company servers and proprietary protocols. The open source projects you see that utilize these services are doing so ILLEGALLY by ignoring the services' End User Policies. mIRC, being a corporate entity and not an open-source project, would be liable for millions of dollars of inflated losses by these companies. Khaled is not in the business of getting sued.
mIRC is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) protocol client, not some Internet Content Provider (ICP) like AOL or MSN or YAHOO. Look up the definition of "la-carte". I hope this makes more sense to you.
Why don't you define an Internet Standard Instant Messager Protocol (IMP) and develop a network of IMP Servers that utilize and provide free access to open standards.
Until then, Stop WASTING our time.
Be glad that IRC is [advertisement] FREE.
- Raccoon
