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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.
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.
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
Working link.
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
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
"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!
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?
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?"
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.
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'.
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.
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.
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.
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".
"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]