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Re: Microsoft :-) Sender-ID Licence



On Tue, Aug 24, 2004 at 02:20:10PM +0200, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> The MARID Working Group of IETF
> (http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/marid-charter.html) is close to
> settle on its Sender-ID protocol.
> 
> Microsoft claims patents on some parts of Sender-ID
> (http://www.imc.org/ietf-mxcomp/mail-archive/msg03495.html).
> 
> Microsoft drafted a licence for those wishing to implement
> Sender-ID. I've found it small enough to be attached here but,
> otherwise, it is at
> http://www.imc.org/ietf-mxcomp/mail-archive/msg03496.html and has a
> FAQ at http://www.imc.org/ietf-mxcomp/mail-archive/msg03497.html.

This isn't a license, it's a bloody contract. You have to sign it and
return it to MS before it takes effect, and you can't redistribute (or
modify) until you do that.

I can't imagine how that could be free.

On the other hand, I can't imagine how MS could have any valid patents
on such a simple thing. So it's quite possible that the whole thing is
a load of bull.

This also contains a choice-of-venue clause which explicitly denies
all the escape methods people have suggested so far.

And it's a bloody PDF.

-- 
  .''`.  ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield
 : :' :  http://www.debian.org/ |
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