While the legal reasons why Gaim is changing its name to Pidgin are somewhat interesting, more thought-provoking is the fact that they were preventing version 2 from the application from being released - which finally explains why there were quite so many beta releases (six in total):
Getting a settlement with AOL has taken FAR FAR longer than we would have ever guessed. On legal advice, we have refrained from any non-beta release during this process as a show of good faith, and to keep AOL from giving up on it. Again, on legal advice, we have also kept this information closely controlled.At long last, I am pleased to announce that we have a signed settlement and can release our new version.
While Pidgin 2.0 has not yet been released, there is a new Trac-based developer website, as well as plans for a complete site redesign. I am pleased.