I think the real solution would be to make the crap version string customizable and forget about further such issues.
btw the official information about the problem can be found http://www.pidgin.im/~elb/icq.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org