[mailto:owner-spf-discuss(_at_)v2(_dot_)listbox(_dot_)com] On Behalf Of
Julian Mehnle
Of course they are not holding onto the patent for monetary
reasons. I think they are doing it as a leverage (one of
many) against open source software.
Sender-ID is a stopgap for cryptographic authentication. It is not a control
patent. The hysteria that surrounds it is completely unjustified. If the
patent is enforced people move to Domain Keys.
What is really going on here is that the lawyers for open source have been
unable to persuade the lawyers for the corporations that the reciprocity
terms in the GPL are enforceable. There is no case law that is convincing on
the issue and the Apache foundation accepted the corporate terms in W3C.
I am spending an increasing amount of my time answering subpoenas in patent
cases. Basically people plagarize my work then I get dragged in to recite
the plentiful prior art that should put paid to their grubby schemes to
extort money from others on the basis of their plagarism.