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Re: [fetchmail]Need old versions of fetchmail, raising objection against Patent DE 10243243 B4

2005-04-17 09:53:39
Jan Kechel <jan(_at_)kechel(_dot_)de> writes:

i am going to raise an objection against T-Mobile's Software-Patent  DE 
10243243 B4.
Yes, it's a german patent-application, but it try to translate it to 
english:

german original:
"Verfahren zur empfängerseitigen automatischen Behandlung von 
unerwünschter elektronischer Post in Kommunikationsnetzen"

my english translation:
"Process for receiver-sided automatically handling of unwanted 
electronic mail in communication-networks"

So, i found at 
http://www.catb.org/~esr/fetchmail/fetchmail-features.html that:

Since version 3:
Following SMTP 571 response to a From line, fetchmail no longer 
downloads the bodies of spam messages.

Since version 2:
When forwarding mail via SMTP, fetchmail respects the 571 "spam filter" 
response and discards any mail that triggers it.

To rise an objection, i need to give evidence that any publicly 
available program, for example fetchmail, already implemented such a 
feature before 17. October 2002.

PS: you can get the original patent-application from:
https://publikationen.dpma.de/lst_pat_xpt.do?query=PN+%3D+DE10243243B4
(it probably works only at your second try because of the 
session-management of that site)

Jan Kechel <jan(_at_)kechel(_dot_)de> writes:

i found out that spam-filtering is not fetchmail's work ..
I'm going to use bogofilter and Paul Graham's article "A Plan For Spam" 
<http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html> for my objection.

Thanks anyway and sorry for the interruption.

A central item of said patent is claim #1, "eine Analyse auf serienweise
vorhandene inkrementierte Benutzerkennungen" (analysis for incremented
user identifiers present in quantities) - neither Paul's method nor
fetchmail nor bogofilter implement this analysis.

You should still raise the objection now (deadline Apr 26) and perhaps
send in the reasons later, if that's possible - I personally think that
patents on software methods are the wrong way.

Perhaps a poll on Bugtraq and pertinent fora (SPAM-L) can find prior art
to base your objection on.

Let me know off-list how the story ends.

-- 
Matthias Andree


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