[Mimedefang] Trend Micro patent idiocy - and so it begins

[Nels Lindquist]

Hi, folks.

I figured this might be of interest to the community:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080125135544713

The short of it is that Trend Micro is suing Barracuda Networks because 
of their inclusion of ClamAV, claiming infringement of their patent on 
virus scanning at the firewall or gateway level.  The patent was 
discussed on this list in 2005 in a thread starting here:

thttp://lists.roaringpenguin.com/pipermail/mimedefang/2005-May/026938.html

Obviously they're going after Barracuda instead of ClamAV directly 
because the former actually has money.  Whatever your opinion of 
Barracuda's products or corporate practices, they've decided to defend 
against the claim in court, and they're on the side of open source in 
this case.

They're asking the community for possible prior art, specifically 
looking for a copy of MIMESweeper.

David, I seem to recall from the early days of MIMEDefang that you had 
originally wanted to call it MIMESweeper but changed it because of that 
other package.  Does that sound familiar?  Don't suppose you've still 
got a copy of that kicking around somewhere, eh?

Anyway, if they're starting to go after commercial entities which use 
open source in this way, CanIt might get some notice before long. :-( 
Maybe we can do something now to help prevent that eventuality.

Nels Lindquist