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Patent row derails spam plan
28/09/2004 11:53 - (SA)
New York - A row over intellectual property claims from Microsoft has dealt a fatal blow to an effort by internet engineers to create a technical standard for curbing spam.
The failure to reach consensus on the Microsoft-championed proposal known as Sender ID throws back to the free market a process many consider urgent in view of the unabating onslaught of spam.
Sender ID's effectiveness and compatibility with existing mail systems were already in question before members of the Internet Engineering Task Force got hung up on the patent battle, said Yakov Shafranovich, a leading anti-spam activist.
The task force, which works by consensus on internet standards, dissolved a working group on Sender ID last week after deciding that agreement could not be achieved anytime soon.
Some experts say the decision could speed up work on a different spam-control technology from Yahoo, one seen as stronger but more difficult to implement.
The IETF is expected to create a working group as early as November to craft standards for digitally signing messages, an anti-spam approach Yahoo favours. Two other groups are in the works to explore additional approaches.
Identify a common spam technique
It's possible for two or more of these technologies to work in conjunction.
The Microsoft and Yahoo proposals, along with one being tested by America Online, aim to tackle e-mail spoofing - the practice of sending messages that pretend to be from someone else. The technology wouldn't eliminate spam, but it could help identify and block a common spam technique.
Under Sender ID, service providers would submit lists of their mail servers' unique numeric addresses. On the receiving end, software would poll a database to verify that a message was actually processed by one of those servers.
Microsoft has applied for a patent on the method for polling the database. Though the company promises to make the technology available for free, it wants to bar software developers from further licensing it - a restriction that several members of the open-source community find unacceptable.
As the Sender ID working group began trying to craft a compromise on the patent issue, members resurrected technical concerns previously thought to have been settled. That's when the group's leaders decided to abandon the project.
Microsoft spokesperson Sean Sundwall said the company would continue to push Sender ID regardless of IETF's decision. He said smaller companies might hesitate without standards but larger ones won't change their plans.
Andrew Newton, co-chairperson of the working group, declined interview requests but put a positive spin on the developments.
"This is part of the IETF process asking the community to gather more experience with sender authentication schemes to get the final standard right," he wrote.
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