In 1998 the AOL company purchaed Mirabilis. Mirabilis was founded by the four Israelis. In 2010 AOL sold ICQ to the russian Mail.ru group.

In the year 2000 a new „terms of use“ and „Privacy Policy“ appeared. In this Terms you abandon all your intellectual property.

extract from the terms of use and Privacy Policy

„You agree that by posting any material or information anywhere on the ICQ Services and Information you surrender your copyright and any other proprietary right in the posted material or information. You further agree that ICQ Inc. is entitled to use at its own discretion any of the posted material or information in any manner it deems fit, including, but not limited to, publishing the material or distributing it.“

furthermore you will allow ICQ to collect and give your personel data to third parties in some cases.

„Your ICQ Services Information will not be shared with third parties unless: -You have published such information in Public Areas …“ „When you register with and/or use the ICQ Services, you may provide ICQ with, or ICQ may otherwise obtain personally identifiable information (your “ICQ Services Information”).“

If you use a Multimessanger, you are using illegal software

extract from the End User License Agreement

„You agree not to (1) create or use any software other than the Software provided by ICQ or by America Online, Inc., or any affiliate thereof, to enter your ICQ number and password or to access the ICQ Services, without the express written authorization of ICQ; (2) extract information from the ICQ Services, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, alter, duplicate, make copies, create derivative works from, distribute or provide others with the Software, the ICQ communications protocol or any information available on, derived or extracted from the ICQ Services, or any part thereof; (3) block, disable or otherwise affect any advertising, advertisement banner window, links to other sites and services, or other features that constitute an integral part of the Software and ICQ Services; (4) connect, use, attempt to connect or use in any way the ICQ Services, for any commercial purpose and any other purpose that is not for your private personal use in good faith and as explicitly offered on the ICQ Web site; and (5) incorporate, integrate or otherwise include the Software or any portion thereof (including the ICQ communications protocols) into any software, program or product that communicates, accesses, or otherwise connects with the ICQ Service or any other instant messaging, Internet, or online service.“

[1]https://www.icq.com/legal/policy.html
[2]https://www.icq.com/legal/end-user-license.html