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An inDECENT proposal

A very INTERESTING proposal has come up in MARID. John Levine, my old ASRG co-chair proposed the use of fetchmail’s algorithm for Sender-ID instead of Microsoft’s PRA to go around IPR issues. Being that it is Labor Day, it remains to be seen what the reaction would be. Adding to this fact is that Microsoft is only claiming IPR on the core of Sender-ID itself when used with PRA, not separately as outlined in their disclosure:

C. If an Internet-Draft or RFC includes multiple parts and it is not reasonably apparent which part of such Internet-Draft or RFC is alleged to be covered by the patent information disclosed in Section V(A) or V(B), it is helpful if the discloser identifies here the sections of the Internet-Draft or RFC that are alleged to be so covered. Both Sender ID: Authenticating E-mail <draft-ietf-marid-core-03.txt> and Purported Responsible Address in E-mail Messages <draft-ietf-marid-pra-00.txt> in combination (emphasis added)Now RFC 3668 in section 8 is pretty clear that non-IPR stuff is preferred unless the IPR encumbered is superior:

In general, IETF working groups prefer technologies with no known IPR
claims or, for technologies with claims against them, an offer of
royalty-free licensing. But IETF working groups have the discretion
to adopt technology with a commitment of fair and non-discriminatory
terms, or even with no licensing commitment, if they feel that this
technology is superior enough to alternatives with fewer IPR claims
or free licensing to outweigh the potential cost of the licenses.

Take into account that fetchmail is written by Eric S. Raymond (ESR), who is the president of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and the story becomes even more ironic: a choice between an algorithm written by an FOSS advocate which is not IPR encumbered, or a choice of Microsoft’s algorithm not compatible with the GPL because of patents. As we say in chess, Microsoft appears to be “in check”. It remains to be seen when the checkmate will happen.

Tags: asrg, ipr, marid, senderid —

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