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Memo to self, from Bill Gates, re: intellectual property viz. Sender ID.
Oh no, not again. When will we ever learn that the first go round was dumb luck and good timing. We walked into a great game and played our hand exceptionally well -- although nobody knew it at the time.
Looks like we've managed to hold on the wrong cards again here; push on the wrong roll; whatever. Seems the IETF is passing us by as a tech standard for Sender ID. (See ref. from the Inquirer: Microsoft snubbed on Sender ID. Note to admin: why am I always getting this information from the Web? Where's our intelligence and research department on these things?) Look at what they're saying:
[Andrew] Newton [one of the co-chairs of the working group] said that it is possible that Sender ID could be used as part of a standards-compliant tool for thwarting spam, but the IETF settled on a standard that does not include potential patent risk.
So, what the hell's the value of the patent if the market doesn't develop -- or worse, if the market develops and we're not part of it!! Man, it'll be like the Internet all over again. How much cost and grief was it to buy IE into the dominant spot? Couldn't we have avoided that just by getting in first with everyone else instead of trying to control . . .