Is Skype a virus?

I have been running Skype on my laptop and wife's laptop for months (it almost seems like a year). It started with a request to limit long distance charges between the US and China. Though Skype wasn't the right answer, I wanted to stay on the cutting edge of VOIP on the desktop.

Of course with the recent article, "Can Skype be a good corporate citizen?", I am rethinking having Skype running.

The question is does anyone of the millions of Skype users realize that they might be sharing network and system resources to make phone calls work for the vast Skype user group. As for me and my laptop, I will be uninstalling Skype for the time being.