From: Kelly, Michael [mailto:MKelly(_at_)BroadViewSoftware(_dot_)com]
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2005 12:58 PM
<...>
Is there any kind of paper trail for the discussions with the lawyers
and corporate types? I would like to read the events leading up to this.
A reasonable request. The public confrontations took place in the IETF
MARID working group and led to its dissolution when MS willfully created an
unresolvable stalemate. One of the main issues was MS's insistence that
they use the large base of published SPF records, even though their PRA
algorithm would sometimes result in actions that the publishers of those
records could never have anticipated. To this day, they claim the large
base of published SPF records as evidence of broad support for SID. The
real showstopper was MS's last minute release of a patent application
covering SID and their corporate position that a ("free") license from MS
would be required from every developer who incorporated SID and every
end-user who utilized it. Numerous major package maintainers and open
software organizations publicly stated that they could not implement SID due
to the terms of the MS license, but MS persisted. In retrospect, it is
apparent that MS knew their stance was unacceptable and would result in a
deadlock, which was their fallback position if they could not control the
standard.
That is all IETF public record, though it's been so long I don't have a link
handy to refer you. This situation was discussed at length on this list and
also in the SPF IRC channel. The archives of this list are complete and
referenced at the bottom of this post, though there is a lot to read
through. I don't know if the IRC channel records were archived back then.
Perhaps some of the folks who were present at the MARID meetings could
provide a concise group of citations to read. William? Wayne?
--
Seth Goodman
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