A patent granted to managed e-mail security company Postini could pose problems for the company's competitors and others in the managed e-mail services market, experts warn.
If enforced, the patent, which covers an e-mail "pre-processing service" could grant Postini legal ownership of a wide range of anti-spam and e-mail security methods. However, some industry experts doubt that the patent, filed in September 2000, will stand up to legal scrutiny.
Patent #6,650,890 was awarded to Postini by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in November 2003. The patent cites three inventors, including Postini cofounder and Vice President Scott Petry and former employee Gordon Irlam. The patent describes a variety of methods for providing messaging services in an e-mail network, according to the USPTO Web site.
Among other things, the patent covers the use of an "intermediate pre-processing service (in) the electronic message delivery path" that requires changing the "Domain Name Server entry... of the destination email server to contain an IP address of the intermediate pre-processing service."
Different methods of message "pre-processing" are addressed in the patent, including forwarding based on instructions stored in user profiles, forwarding parts of the e-mail message content, forwarding e-mail to wireless devices, junk e-mail filtering, and virus detection, according to the patent.
Companies like Postini, MessageLabs, MX Logic and Frontbridge Technologies intercept inbound e-mail on behalf of their customers, then filter out spam, viruses and other unsuitable messages before sending the remaining e-mail messages on to the customer e-mail server and the message's intended recipient.
View: Read more at Network World Fusion
News source: Network World Fusion
If enforced, the patent, which covers an e-mail "pre-processing service" could grant Postini legal ownership of a wide range of anti-spam and e-mail security methods. However, some industry experts doubt that the patent, filed in September 2000, will stand up to legal scrutiny.
Patent #6,650,890 was awarded to Postini by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in November 2003. The patent cites three inventors, including Postini cofounder and Vice President Scott Petry and former employee Gordon Irlam. The patent describes a variety of methods for providing messaging services in an e-mail network, according to the USPTO Web site.
Among other things, the patent covers the use of an "intermediate pre-processing service (in) the electronic message delivery path" that requires changing the "Domain Name Server entry... of the destination email server to contain an IP address of the intermediate pre-processing service."
Different methods of message "pre-processing" are addressed in the patent, including forwarding based on instructions stored in user profiles, forwarding parts of the e-mail message content, forwarding e-mail to wireless devices, junk e-mail filtering, and virus detection, according to the patent.
Companies like Postini, MessageLabs, MX Logic and Frontbridge Technologies intercept inbound e-mail on behalf of their customers, then filter out spam, viruses and other unsuitable messages before sending the remaining e-mail messages on to the customer e-mail server and the message's intended recipient.
View: Read more at Network World Fusion News source: Network World Fusion
- Changelog
- made MP4 AAC the new default ripping encoder
- fixed a crash bug when playing some AVI files in in_dshow
- added multimedia keyboard keys in global hotkeys default configuration
- added "Manual playlist advance" in Repeat button popup menu in Classic mode
- improvements in MP3 encoder configuration (added --alt-preset standard, etc...)
- made the tabs in the preferences XP correctly themed under Windows XP
- revamped the Media Library preferences a bit
- new experimental WMA9 input plugin
- gen_jumpex updates from DrO
- added "Nuke library" action in Media Library
- more upside down videos fixes
- fixed crash if a plugin generated a pledit wm_windowposchanged on shutdown
- fixed crash exploit in in_mod (thanks Peter Winter-Smith)
- fixed various crashes in in_midi when playing invalid files
- made in_midi store its settings in winamp.ini instead of the registry
- fixed error during installation on computers with chinese/oriental regional settings
- removed AOD from installer
- added Shift-R to toggle manual playlist advance
- updated VP6 video decoder to latest VP6.2 code
- fixed crash when launching winamp with very long filenames from explorer
- made registration dialog to appear in Explorer's taskbar when installing pro verion
- fixed pledit/video windows showing up at startup when minimized
- modern skins updates:
- winamp modern skin now uses a 3 state repeat button: no repeat/repeat all/repeat track
- added appplication desktop toolbars capabilities for layouts, add
appbar="left|top|right|bottom" to use them
- upped maki binary version, improved stack protection
- current skin version number is 1.2 (this should not change for a long while now, and of course we continue to support 0.8 to 1.1)
- (very) limited maki debugger (for now you can bring it up with invokeDebugger(); in a script then use 'x' to continue and 'i' to trace into)
- fixed obscure capture problem with dragging windows
- fixed rectrgn being forced to 1 in xml xuiobject buttons that are originally imageless
- fixed hilited state not on after clicking on buttons while the mouse stays in area
- fixed scripted onEnterArea/onLeaveArea not being always correctly called while mouse button stays down
- fixed getToken being passed NULL throwing guru
- fixed clipping of painting within the background's region of a group rather than
within the composed region (the one you can change with sysregion)
- fixed image cache problem when using the same bitmap as a map and a button image parameter
- winamp modern skin now uses a 3 state repeat button: no repeat/repeat all/repeat track
The really nice thing about this service is that their virus defs are always up to date, and I can examine (and read if I want) all this email without first having to download it off the server. That way I don't have to worry about, for example, the next guy who figures out how to infect systems by merely downloading an infected email. I can't get infected because this crap never makes it to my computer.
I don't care how good regular client email filters are. I you use a client filter, you still have to download everything to your computer before it can be filtered. This is inherently dangerous given the increasing sophistication of spammers and other malware creators.
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