Oops, I spotted a flaw in my own reasoning:
I wrote:
I will be in exactly the same situation regarding licensing as you were. Isn't
that what the GPL says?
Neither of us will be in exactly the same situation regarding licensing as
the guy (if any) you got
your pre MS code from.
Under the GPL, downstream GPL licensees are free to use the code in any way
they see fit,
so long as they GPL it. I could use code originally written for email
verification as part of my
automatic toilet flushing program and still comply with the GPL.
Under the MS license, the right to use MS's SenderID specific IP is only
granted in the
narrow context of code technically necessary to implement SenderID. Neither I
nor my downstream
customer can use it for another purpose without going back to MS.
That is a substantive licensing difference. It may be an acceptable compromise
for the
purpose of getting SenderID out the door, but it could cause GPL problems. It
needs
careful thought.
Mark Holm