Slashdot Mirror
Network Associates Aquires Deersoft Inc.
Duncan Findlay writes "Network Associates Inc. has just
acquired Deersoft, Inc., which is known by many as the creator of SpamAssassin Pro, the proprietary (Windows) version of the GPL/PAL licensed SpamAssassin (Mirrors: Eastern US, Europe). It seems that we may see parts of SpamAssassin under the McAfee name within 6 months. You can also read the story at Yahoo or at Reuters. Unfortunately, the SpamAssassin trademark was owned by Deersoft, so hypothetically, NAI could force us to call the Open Source project something else!"
How about "CannedHamHitMan"? It rhymes at least...
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
It's already advertised as McAfee SpamKiller... http://mcafee.digitalriver.com/dr/v2/ec_MAIN.Entry 17c?CID=68368&PN=5&SP=10007&SID=39692&PID=388403&D SP=&CUR=840&PGRP=0&CACHE_ID=68368
all this inferior technology?
McAfee bought SpamKiller a number of months back. I actually paid for that thing back when it was just a shareware project. Big money came in, updates stopped...
Now they buy SpamAssassin, great! I actually used it after getting rid of SpamKiller, and it was OK-ish, but it bothered the hell out of me that I had no control over what's spam and what's not, except for a sender black- and whitelist. (Which sometimes does not work for mailing lists, some of the ones I'm on have date-specific senders such as blahblah-digest-20021220@blahblah.com.)
I switched to POPFile like two months ago, and never looked back. 97.8% accuracy and increasing, yay!
McAfee needs to add in more functionality to remove Gator programs, and other software that installs itself off the web for corporate users. Basically, they need to buy out Adaware and incorporate it within McAfee to make systems 100% clean. Virus Scanners for some reason have been very slow to scan for Gator-like programs that get installed and run in the background without the users knowledge and consent (Autoinstalls from certain sites, etc) and rack itself up as a legit virii if i've ever seen one. Users want to buy this protection, they need to offer it.
I assume Deersoft is the company that released regular SpamAsassin under GPL. In this case, I don't think they can remove GPL from any part of the code, including it's name. If they just used GPL code from other people, they would have to either release source code for the PRO version or license the original one separately. Even then, GPL license would still protect everyone's right to use the name. Not a lawyer, just seems common sense.
Assasin was pretty good and I really liked their original game as well.
www.cloudmark.com
SpamNet is actually somewhat better at intelligently filtering out trash.
With each purchase of NA Sniffer Pro, you get a complimentary copy of "Deer Hunter"! Absolutely /FREE/! What a bargain!
No, Beowulf clusters can't imagine in Soviet Russia.
I hope the name SpamAssassin is all they have the rights to. It seems like there might be some messy legal issues here.
Also, if this goes as mainstream as it looks like it's going, we might need a different open-source spam filter after all - because NAI's product will be the one the spammers will be testing on and trying to get past.
OTOH, maybe NAI throwing money at this will make ISPs everywhere notice and start taking spam a bit more seriously.
Anyway, while it lasts, SpamAssassin (or whatever we call it) is excellent. The new Bayesian filtering in the upcoming 2.50 is working wonders.
It's Slashdot's evil twin... SlashNOT
...or have there been a lot more spam related stories than usual these past few weeks? Weird..
I bought a copy to use at home and 30 licenses for the office. The stuff works good.
They've continued to update the program and add more features. I get 50-100 spams per day and the program might miss one of them.
I hope they are getting a nice tasty payout from Network Associates.
nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist
i hope they don't fark it up
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Since Hormel Foods owns the name "Spam," couldn't they force Network Associates to call their product "Nasty Synthetic Luncheon Meat Assassin"?
Assuming McAfee wants to use the SpamAssassin name, and assuming they try to make the open source project find a new name...
/. -- that's an increase in public exposure already. For a typical open source project (meaning: advertising efforts rely mainly on word-of-mouth and product reviews), there's the potential for great benefit here. If the open source SpamAssassin project makes a good product, nobody will remember a name change controversy one or two years down the line; but there's no doubt that more people will have been made aware that such a project existed in the first place.
wouldn't the open source project benefit greatly just by the exposure and publicity gained through such a move?
Ok, we're not talking a CNN breaking news story here, but I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I had never even heard of SpamAssassin until just now via
They killed SpamAssassin! ;-)
"but I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I had never even heard of SpamAssassin until just now via /. "
You must be new around here or filtering out interesting articles... It's been around for ages, I've been using it now myself for nearly 18 months or more in varying guises.
I guess the latter would make it rather hard for them to force us to change the name for the thing, too.
~Tim
--
Rushing on down to the circle of the turn
Some would say it's already dead. In any case, Spybot Search and Destroy is better for now.
Personally, i prefer to use RBL's and block the spammers so i dont have to fill up my server's hdd. I tend to suspect that RBL checks are less computationally intensive then content filters.
Besides, if the ip keeps tripping my rbl check, i can add it to the firewall and waste about zero cpu time on em : )
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
So i just watched the weakest link college edition and this idiot from mich state deerborn wins. He's a pol sci major, and when asked 'What body of congress is composed of 100 members' he answered 'The House Of Representatives'.... Then at the end he bragged that his school was the best and that is why he won, and he's taking it home to them. I bet the pol sci department is proud...
Requirements
* Windows 98 / NT / 2000 / XP
* Outlook 2000 / XP
* 1mb disk space
Um. Yeah.... Now all I need to do is get a Windows box and then install outlook. Think I'll stick to SpamAssassin, Procmail and POPFile.
Q. What will happen to existing Deersoft Inc. products and customers?
We will take the existing product off the market immediately and will launch an enhanced version in the second quarter of 2003. Network Associates has assumed all support obligations for Deersoft customers. Existing Deersoft customers can contact a technical support representative at 1 800-722-3709.
YES US TELEPHONE SUPPORT! it's *SO* cheap calling from Denmark to US.
Anyway as happy user, I seriously doubt anything worthwhile for existing customers will come out of this.
still reading?
Comments follow swiftly
Response flows from fingers:
"acronym means nothing to me"
-Matt
--- Need web hosting?
From a marketriod standpoint (IANAM), the word "Assassin" is too heavily conotated with the deliberate forcible termination of human life to be effective as part of a product name (unless you make assassination products!). Also, while SpamAssassin has great market penetration amongst the Slashdot crowd, I don't think it's so well known with the general public that they'll keep the brand name for recognition value.
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
I'm no longer carnivorous, but it was never high on my list.... Like laws, and sausages, if you think you want to eat the stuff, you should probably watch it being made for a while first...
btw I believe we need a Interview-People-Who-Didnt-Want-To-Be-Interviewed section.
We'll ask the questions anyway and they can still think about them.
This way we can interview bill gates, rms and the current Sun CEO (this must be done fast tho).
--there are seven black holes in our galaxy without counting http://goatse.cx
it spamo-blamo!
I know you are psychotic, but please make an effort.
I first looked at the headline and thought it said Network Solutions acquires Deersoft, Inc...
This article on VB looks at the history of SpamAssassin and SpamAssassin pro, and conflicts of interest this might create; a neat summary:
s sin.xml
http://www.virusbtn.com/news/latest_news/spamassa
Score:-1, Funny
Who cares what they call it?
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
That is the opposite of a haiku.
Their current product is SpamKiller, which isn't as strong of a word nor necessarily specific to humans. But why not? If you wanted to create a powerful association with spam being targeted and eliminated, assassin fits right in.
y ert
Of course, you wouldn't want:
SpamMurderer
SpamNuker
SpamEater
SpamFr
SpamReaper
Spam-to-Kingdom-Come
SpamExorcis
SpamKeelhaul
Assuming anything happens on the trademark front Deersoft owning the SpamAssassin trademark is relatively pointless. IIRC Spamassassin was called spamassassin long before deersoft registered the trademark, or even considered a windows version. Use of a trademark prior to it being registered is a vaild defense against a trademark infringement cliam, and can actually should the spamassassin folks choose be grounds to have deersoft's trademark squashed.
wrt: SpamAssassin trademark was owned by Deersoft, so hypothetically, NAI could force us to call the Open Source project something else!"
...except that the previous owners did not vigorously defend the mark against the Free Software project, would NAI now have grounds at all? Selling the mark does not erase the actions Deersoft did/did-not make.
EXCEPT that there is no justice in the USA without $$$$ - so the mere threat of a suit from NAI would cause the F.S. project to freely walk away from the 'battle'.
wow, a spyware killer prog that's updated???
/confused
An NAI story
"Hello, we're using the free version of PGP in testing and have decided to use it in production, what do we need to license this from you?" Sales moron takes information and says, 'I'll get back to you in a bit.'
Guy calls back threatening a lawsuit if we don't buy the 'Enterprise' edition of the product that only runs on Windows (We needed only the version for Solaris). This continues with more and more strongarmed tactics including phone spamming all of our corporate directory with their threats.
It took telling the guy that he was too close to our office to keep running on at the mouth like he was and that he had better serve papers or look over his shoulder durning lunch hour if he continued calling.
NAI uses mafia tactics to sell their broken down product line, the faster people can boycott them the better off we all will be. I have never sold another NAI product to any of my clients as a result.
May as well change the name now just to avoid the annoying threats that will ensue. NAI you are despicable, a stand-out in a sea of detritus. Congratulations on what will be the ruin of another great product.
"The first product, McAfee SpamKiller(TM) Enterprise, will be delivered in the second quarter as a desktop solution."
Which means they're probably not concerned with who uses the SpamAssasin name.
Afterall, were talking about Network Ass...nevermind.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
With apologies to the many who have contributed to SA in the past, Spamassassin was basically the work of three people. Craig, Justin and Matt. Between the three of them that's the *vast* majority of the work that was done on that project.
Here's the troubling part.
Craig and Justin owned the trademark and now work for NAI on the proprietary version (to be named "SpamKiller" apparently) and Matt's company has pulled him off because there is a conflict of interest in having him work on open source being fed back into NAI.
So the three captains of this project are now gone. This doesn't bode well for the future of SA.
Sucks.
SPAM is an acronym for Squirrels, Possums, and Mice
More like Spiced Pork and Ham or (later) Specially Processed Assorted Meat. SPAM® luncheon meat by Hormel Foods is pork shoulder and ham, salt, water, sugar, and sodium nitrite. (Read More...)
Why does a hamburger sandwich have beef?
Will I retire or break 10K?
A Pink Meat Eater by any other name doth smell as sweet.
Interesting trend here. OS projects getting bought out by private industry. While lots to be said about that, and the quality of OS vs. Closed Source, I don't see that this could change anything other than the name.
Yes, it is terrible to see the three original authors go, but there are many in the OS community that are willing to pick up and carry on. And once OS, always OS, right?
SpamAssassin code seems fairly stable. All that's really needed at this point are updates to the matching rules IMO. At some point, yes, the code will need a bit of work, but it's not the same level of job to maintain code as it is to create it. I'm not saying it's easy...
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
According to the article at Infoweek, NAI plans to call their product SpamKiller, not SpamAsassin. Looks like the OSS version may be ok name-wise after all.
vi is my shepard, I shall not font.
Who says that the name of the software would be protected by GPL?
The software name is trademarked. GPL is based off of copyright. Completely separate concepts.
From the FAQ. Am I paranoid or does this smell of saying we really want to shut this down.
Q. What is Network Associates position on open source technology?
Network Associates strongly supports the commercial software model, and prefers to work with proprietary source code. However, where there is clear customer need, we will work with open source solutions if those solutions are the best technology to address the need.
Open source is a term that encompasses a large variety of licensing schemes.
Network Associates recognizes that some open source projects such as Linux are very successful and highly desired by our customers.
We will work with customers in the operating systems that they choose.
No, maybe not :-)
Ad-aware spuriously removing these programs however, it's tagging them as evil spam/porn/popup/spyware, telling you about them, and giving you complete choice of what files are deleted.
If it automatically went through and sliced'n'diced apps that would be bad. By giving the users the choice, it's their decision as to what to remove - right down to the registry entries and individual files - and a user has a right to remove whatever he/she damn well wants from a personal computer.
Not too long ago, I received in my mailbox -- an unsolicited commercial advertisement from NAI for their SpamKiller product.
At first, I thought it was a joke. Sadly, it wasn't.
A new way to make money on free code:
1. Release your own program under GPL
2. Wait until people start using/extending it.
3. Sue them for patent and trademark infrigement.
4. Profit!!!
Shouldn't we have GPL+ license that also makes people who write/extend the code give up any patents or trademarks that they put there? Just wait until Microsoft hears this and starts releasing shared source under "GPL".
What do the maintainers of CORBA technology have to do with anything?
SpamAssassin has *great* brand name recognition. Yes, it is heavily amongst slashdot-like crowd, but it's also been featured a lot in the press, plus there are many /.ers who run open-source SA on their boxes at home, but would just love an Outlook/Exchange version to purchase for use at the office where Mr PHB wants something which runs on Windows, or where they don't have the time/personel to install/tweak/maintain/update the open source version.
Deersoft's aim was to provide nicely packaged, GUI-ized point-and-click products for the Windows market, driven by the same high-precision engine that's available to the open-source enlightened through spamassassin.org
Craig Hughes
As for NAI's intentions wrt the mark, I'm working on clarifying those now
Here's how Abisource handles it: AbiWord refers to Abisource's binary distribution, and AbiWord Personal refers to the GPL version.
Will I retire or break 10K?
If it gets to be a problem, I suggest ANSA's Not Spam Assassin.
Another suggestion; we get to keep the name for the GPL's *NIX version as long as we continue to not release a free (GPL or beer) windows port.
455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
what the hell is a "software microbe"
"YOUR DOMAINS ARE EXPIRING! RE-REGISTER THEM NOW WITH NETWORK SOLUTIONS! ONLY $35/YEAR! THAT'S LESS THAN $($) PER DAY! ...if you do not wish to receive these messages, please purchase SpamAssassin. Now available for only $250."
And then, of course, NSI is whitelisted in the SA database through some "mysterious corruption".
[insert witty comment here]
Up until last weeks in December, they had a spare (and frenetic) one-room office in the building I work in. Noticed at the New year that the offices are dark -- and empty. Does this mean they're now all happily off purchasing private jets, pounding the pavement, or frenetically working in a Network Associates office?
Just a gossipy question.
The salesman and the system analyst took off to spend a weekend in the
forest, hunting bear. They'd rented a cabin, and, when they got there, took
their backpacks off and put them inside. At which point the salesman turned
to his friend, and said, "You unpack while I go and find us a bear."
Puzzled, the analyst finished unpacking and then went and sat down
on the porch. Soon he could hear rustling noises in the forest. The noises
got nearer -- and louder -- and suddenly there was the salesman, running like
hell across the clearing toward the cabin, pursued by one of the largest and
most ferocious grizzly bears the analyst had ever seen.
"Open the door!", screamed the salesman.
The analyst whipped open the door, and the salesman ran to the door,
suddenly stopped, and stepped aside. The bear, unable to stop, continued
through the door and into the cabin. The salesman slammed the door closed
and grinned at his friend. "Got him!", he exclaimed, "now, you skin this
one and I'll go rustle us up another!"
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