At 11:59 PM 5/12/2003 +0100, Craig Cockburn wrote:
In message
<CE541259607DE94CA2A23816FB49F4A301AE24B6(_at_)vhqpostal6(_dot_)verisign(_dot_)com>,
"Hallam-Baker, Phillip" <pbaker(_at_)verisign(_dot_)com> writes
I know of extensive prior art in this area.
The prior art of using a confirmation mail to validate the sender is who
they claim to be is well established.
Here is a posting from 1 Feb 1991 from someone being asked to confirm
their subscription to a list
http://tinyurl.com/blm5
Here is the announcement in March 1993 that listserv had already
implemented sender confirmation (double opt ins)
http://tinyurl.com/blm8
"When the user sends a subscription request, he is mailed a confirmation
request message"
Mailblocks is completely astonishing that they think they have any rights
to confirming people's identities at all. Never mind that other people got
there at least 6 years before them, there's also the fact that to anyone
with any experience this is "obvious" technology and therefore fails on
those grounds too. What is the inventive step or process which they are
claiming rights to?
Whether you use this to validate a subscriber (safe person to send) to a
mailing list or a safe person to send to your mailbox matters none - the
process is what is patented and the process was already in public use 12
years ago.
I think that MailBlocks will have to answer that during their lawsuit with
Earthlink. I bet you that Earthlink will try to invalidate the patents
based on prior art.
Yakov
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Yakov Shafranovich / <research(_at_)solidmatrix(_dot_)com>
SolidMatrix Research, a division of SolidMatrix Technologies, Inc.
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"One who watches the wind will never sow, and one who keeps his eyes on
the clouds will never reap" (Ecclesiastes 11:4)
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