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2005-03-23: SPF for e-mail is an independent standard
HTML: http://spf.mehnle.net/Council_Meeting/2005-03-02
PDF: http://spf.mehnle.net/blobs/press-release-20050323.pdf
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The Sender Policy Framework (SPF) Project makes a clear statement on
the independence of its SPF e-mail sender authentication protocol.
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Raleigh, North Carolina, USA -- March 23, 2005 -- The SPF Project
wishes to make clear the independence and standing of SPF, its
proposed standard for sender authentication of electronic mail.
During the functional period of the Internet Engineering Task Force's
MARID working group, several mutations of the SPF protocol specification
were published. These specifically include "draft-lyon-senderid-core"
and "draft-lentczner-spf", which constitute the Sender-ID protocol
proposed by Microsoft Corporation. None of those drafts should be
considered officially sanctioned by the SPF Project.
After the collapse of MARID and the subsequent formation of the SPF
Council, the SPF Project's steering committee, a new line of
specification drafts, "draft-schlitt-spf-classic", has now been created
and submitted to the IETF for standardization. This line of drafts
exclusively defines the SPF protocol by authority of the SPF Project.
In its current Sender-ID specification and through its public
relations practice, Microsoft has declared SPF, both technically and
conceptually, to be a dependent and integral part of Sender-ID. The
SPF Project firmly rejects this attempt at co-opting SPF. Although
SPF and Sender-ID are conceptually related and can be used in
parallel, they are independent protocols and should not be confused.
By now, at least 750,000 domains have published sender policies
complying with the SPF protocol, which has a tradition reaching back
to mid-2003. However, though no cooperation on the authoring of the
SPF protocol is desired, the project remains open to collaborative
efforts on the development of future e-mail authentication standards.
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About the SPF Project
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The SPF project was founded in 2003 by Meng Weng Wong to act against
the increasing levels of e-mail sender address forgery by spammers,
imposters, and computer viruses. He and the many dedicated internet
technologists who have joined him have developed the sender
authentication technology now called "Sender Policy Framework".
SPF aims to fix various ambiguities in the standards underlying the
e-mail system that have essentially remained unchanged since their
inception in 1982. The Sender Policy Framework allows domain owners
to define who may and may not send mail reputed to be from their
domains.
For additional details about Sender Policy Framework see:
http://spf.pobox.com
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About the SPF Council
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Established in December 2004, the SPF Council's mission is to steer
the overall SPF standardization effort, promote the deployment of SPF
on the global Internet, and to develop and improve SPF's public
messaging and communications.
For additional details and news about the SPF Council see:
http://spf.mehnle.net
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Press Contacts
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America:
Meng Weng Wong
Executive Director, SPF Council
phone: +1 888 POBOX-COM
e-mail: mengwong(_at_)pobox(_dot_)com
Chuck Mead
Chairman, SPF Council
phone: +1 919-621-0605
e-mail: csm(_at_)moongroup(_dot_)com
Europe:
Mark Kramer
SPF Council
phone: +31 715221331
e-mail: spf-contact(_at_)asarian-host(_dot_)net