Good on you for saying this and I think that many of us know it.
I wanted to make sure that everyone knew it.
The "big deal" here is that the license they're trying to use (which
is a
"RAND" license) was applicable to Caller-ID but so far as we know is
not
applicable to SPF which is where the standard is sitting right now.
On the one hand we really don't know what their IP claims pertain to,
just that it is something that was in Caller-ID. However, the
marid-core document (both the -01 draft that has been published, and
the upcoming -02 as I understand it), include the PRA algorithm from
Caller-ID (looking through the headers to find the responsible domain,
rather than using the envelope MAIL FROM). It is my understanding that
that is the thing they have patent pending on, though I cannot be sure.
Note that as far as I know, the SPF record format and the algorithm for
checking a domain and host ip against it are not in any way. The
protocol-00 draft (now published by the IETF secretariat) covers these
areas. Nor do I think that Microsoft is asserting licensing terms over
these parts.
- Mark
Mark Lentczner
http://www.ozonehouse.com/mark/
markl(_at_)glyphic(_dot_)com