Microsoft-backed antispam spec gets filtered out

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Seems to be the terms

From an atricle by Yakov Shafronovich:

There is a requirement for each implementer to sign a license with Microsoft, the fact that the license was not sub-licensable to others, and also the inherent ability for Microsoft to revoke the license.

The very act of Microsoft knowing about possible competitors in the email business, is in itself rather disturbing. And to stir the pot, the viewpoint of Microsoft lawyers on the subject is rather die hard and strange. They have stated that they would rather see Sender-ID die than change the license

Microsoft has refused to disclose what exact rights they might be claiming. While this is not unusual since the patent application has not been granted yet, nevertheless it is reducing the flexibility of the IETF in evaluating the issue.

Microsoft is claiming IPR in proposals that may very well not even be theirs, which evolved in an open discussion, is asking for a restrictive license, and refusing to consider the market truth -- that most of email server software is FOSS and might not be able to use this standard. Their claim of a defensive patent does not hold water since other companies have managed differently and there are other ways to accomplish the same goal. The fact that FOSS is Microsoft's greatest competitor at this time, does not help their image as many including governments may start to wonder whether Microsoft is using standards development as a backdoor to killing FOSS.

Posted by: NT Admin   Posted on: 09/24/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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