http://news.com.com/2010-1032_3-1003921.html In-boxes that fight back By Declan McCullagh May 19, 2003, 4:00 AM PT If you're overwhelmed by spam like the rest of us, there aren't any really terrific solutions. You can try smarter spam filters, though you'll still have to verify that legit mail isn't swept up among the dross. You can switch to a new e-mail address and pray that nobody except friends and family ever learn it. Or wait a few years for micropayments, small cash payments required to deliver e-mail that could make it uneconomical for spammers to annoy us. But the spam-blocking technique that's attracted the most attention among start-ups recently is a very simple one: Challenge-response (CR) technology. When your mailbox is protected by a CR system, anyone who tries to contact you will be greeted with a response saying something like "click on this link to deliver this message" or "type in the word you see in the box above." Well-designed CR utilities won't challenge mail from known correspondents or mail that you specifically asked to receive. The problem with CR systems is that one company, Mailblocks of Los Altos, Calif., claims to own all rights to the concept and hopes to prevent anyone else from selling such a system without paying hefty licensing fees. Mailblocks has purchased two patents, 6,199,102 (filed in 1997) and 6,112,227 (filed in 1998), and has been aggressive in wielding them against competitors. Mailblocks' targets so far include Seattle-based SpamArrest and EarthLink (after the Internet provider said it would begin offering CR technology to subscribers by the end of May). Mailblocks has asked for a preliminary injunction in both suits. Phil Goldman, Mailblocks' chief executive, is no stranger to the rough-and-tumble world of start-up companies. He got rich when he and two partners co-founded WebTV and sold the unprofitable venture to Microsoft in 1997 for a handy $425 million. (Anyone think he might be eyeing the same exit strategy again?) But Goldman has a problem. He's betting his company on the validity of the two patents, both of which are questionable because of other work that was published well before the filing dates of the Mailblocks patents. [...remainder snipped...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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