David Wheeler wrote:
I believe any useful ASRG result MUST avoid software patents
and/or identify reasons why any patent claims are, almost
certainly, invalid.
The reality is that there are dozens of existing patents that
apply to the problem of handling or filtering spam and there are
*hundreds* of published applications for patents at the USPTO alone that
deal with the problem. (Fortunately, many of those applications will
inevitably be rejected -- but not all...)
Crafting a useful royalty-free method of dealing with spam is
going to be one of:
1. Impossible
2. Require invalidating some existing patent(s) by showing prior
art
3. Rely on patent-holder(s) granting RF licenses.
4. Require some major act(s) of creativity/inventiveness
There should be no question that the IETF, who will presumably
do something with the results of the ASRG's "research", should prefer to
define only royalty-free RFC's. However, the reality is that this may
not be possible. Thus, if "any useful ASRG result MUST avoid software
patents" then the result may be *no* useful ASRG result. Unfortunately,
I think we must accept that the best we can do is:
"ASRG results SHOULD avoid software patents"...
bob wyman
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