[Mimedefang] MD and all of its users appear to be in violation of a US Patent

[Ole Craig]

On 04/02/04 at 09:49, 'twas brillig and Joseph Brennan scrobe:
> --On Friday, April 2, 2004 9:36 AM -0500 "Jon R. Kibler" 
> <Jon.Kibler at aset.com> wrote:
> 
> > Greetings all,
> >
> > Just came across this:
> > 	http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/36666.html
> >
> > A US patent granted to Postini...
[...]
> Well, .forward and Procmail clearly pre-date 1999.  The claim has to
> be more specific.
> 
> The "claims" section begins,
> 
> 
> 
> > What is claimed is:
> >
> > 1. A method of providing electronic messaging services in an email
> > network  comprising a sending email server and a destination email
> > server, wherein emails may be delivered from the sending email server to
> > the destination  email server via an electronic message delivery path
> > through existing  Internet infrastructure, the method comprising:
> >
> > (a) inserting an intermediate pre-processing service into the electronic
> > message delivery path by changing a Domain Name Server entry containing
> > an  IP address of the destination email server to contain an IP address
> > of the  intermediate pre-processing service;
> 
> 
> 
> So it appears to be limited to an idea involving DNS.  The other claims
> all relate to claim 1.

	Moreover, if I read it correctly it's patenting the
combination of an MX record and smarthost. Gee, that's original.

	If/when the first infringement suit issues, if the entity sued
has enough intelligence to run a mailserver it should post to
comp.mail.sendmail and ask for donations to help defray legal defense
costs, not to mention expert testimony from e.g. Eric or Claus. I
suspect the suit wouldn't last long.

	...Of course, my prognostication skills are not necessarily of
the highest order, e.g.:
http://lists.roaringpenguin.com/pipermail/mimedefang/2003-December/018585.html
http://lists.roaringpenguin.com/pipermail/mimedefang/2003-December/018591.html

	Can I have fries with that crow?
		Ole
-- 
Ole Craig * UNIX, linux, SMTP-ninja; news, web; SGI martyr * CS Computing
Facility, UMass * <www.cs.umass.edu/~olc/pgppubkey.txt> for public key

  Where are the missing deficit-reduction program-related activities?