It turns out that MSN are blocking the word “download.php” in MSN Messenger conversations. According to SourceForge, and verified by myself, messages containing those words simply do not get through. In addition, the conversation link is closed (but the chat window itself remains open).
I shouldn’t need to point out that many legitimate sites use download.php as a means for accessing files. Linking a less computer-savvy friend to a download page for AntiVirus software may now be impossible, thanks to MSN.
This is a totally pointless censorship, and serves no purpose whatsoever, other than to inconvenience the user.
Perhaps it is time to switch to another protocol, Jabber, for instance, built on the open XMPP protocol.