September 2nd, 2004
Apache says no to Sender ID
The Apache Group pulled its support of the proposed antispam standard Sender ID, saying Microsoft’s license requirements are too strict.
We believe that the current license is generally incompatible with open source, contrary to the practice of open Internet standards, and specifically incompatible with Apache License 2.0.
As developers of open-source e-mail technologies, we are concerned that no company should be permitted IP (intellectual property) rights over core Internet infrastructure, we will not be implementing support for Sender ID until such time as the issues with the license are fixed and acceptable.
If Microsoft is truly committed to establishing a standard, then the clear answer is to pledge no patent attacks against users of the Sender ID technology, a step IBM took in displaying its commitment to Linux.
