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Analyzing AT&T's Anti-Anti-Spam Patent

Posted by simoniker on from the oddness-abounds dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Dan Gillmor is reporting in his eJournal taken, in turn, from Gregory Aharonian: AT&T has apparently been awarded a patent for circumventing certain spam filters, thereby providing slimeball spammers with yet a bigger hammer!" The patent covers "A system and method for circumventing schemes that use duplication detection to detect and block unsolicited e-mail (spam.)", although it's unclear exactly what AT&T want it for.

6 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. Could it be... by Prof.+Pi · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ...that they want to prevent any spammer from
    using the same techniques by threatening to sue
    them for patent infringement?

  2. AT&T??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    I never imagined AT&T would be performing such a public service. It looks like IP laws will actually be beneficial again.

    and.. FP!!!

  3. Profit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    This is great! Not only can we sue spammers for waste of time or bandwidth, we can now sue them for patent infrigment! Looks like AT&T will be profitting now!

  4. Re:Hey! Shortsighted people! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    ok I'm going out and patenting the whole idea of spamming. brb

  5. Hmmm... by NickisGod.com · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Sounds like a line from Get Smart...

    "We don't shusshhh here!"

  6. AT&T Promoting Anti-Anti-Spam? by CMU_Ken · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I doubt that they're promoting anti-anti-spam, so much as abusing the patent system so that they can sue spammers that try to circumvent for patent infringement.