RE: Contributing a mailet

[Br...@nokia.com]

Noel,

Could you please tell me whether you are replying as a "representative" of the James project, or as a fellow contributor that knows the answers?

Also, I did not see anywhere in the James site a list of contributed mailets... kind of strange considering that mailets are supposed to be the "main purpose" of James.  I probably missed it.  Can you point me to the right URL?

In reply to your questions:

a) 
I'll preface that the mailet I am implementing is not for everyone.  I expect that 10% of administrators will find it too restrictive, while the rest will probably find it ideal.  

The mailet will reject all email from sources that were not preapproved in a whitelist.  Associated tools will handle managing of the list and allow new HUMAN senders to request addition to the list in a manner that is not annoying to the receiving user.

c) 

I have read the ASF license and related info (or as much as I could understand), and it seems acceptable since my primary goal is to end spam once and for all, but I'd like you to clarify a couple of points:

1. Will I be able to keep credit as the author of the mailet?  If so, how?

2. If this anti-spam measure is as successful as I expect it to be, I fear that the spammers of the world will try anything to kill it and the Microsofts of the world will try to steal it.  Because of it I have been sitting on this design for 3 years.  Is it true that the Apache Software Foundation provides free legal defense for its contributors if they are sued as a consequence of a contribution?  If it is not, I will not be able to contribute it and will have to go make it commercial just to make enough money to defend myself.

Bruno


-----Original Message-----
From: ext Noel J. Bergman [mailto:noel@devtech.com]
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2004 2:17 PM
To: James Developers List
Subject: RE: Contributing a mailet


Bruno,

> I want to make sure that
>   (a) It will be accepted as a contribution

Can you provide more details on what kind of anti-spam mailet?

> (b) It is fully compliant with the standards

Follow the sample mailets in the source distribution, keep the code clean
and documented.

> (c) It is absolutely 100% public domain and cannot be subverted
> and used for commercial products or its design principles stolen
> and placed in somebody else's patent (so it will probably need
> to be GPL or something even stronger).

This will not be acceptable, and will require us to reject your code.
Please see http://www.apache.org/licenses/.  ASF software projects must be
licensed using the Apache Software License, and can be used for any purpose,
including commercial.  Furthermore, "public domain" and GPL are not
compatible.

	--- Noel


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Re: Contributing a mailet

[Stefano Mazzocchi <st...@apache.org>]

On 2 Feb 2004, at 11:44, <Br...@nokia.com> wrote:

> Noel,
>
> Could you please tell me whether you are replying as a 
> "representative" of the James project, or as a fellow contributor that 
> knows the answers?


> Also, I did not see anywhere in the James site a list of contributed 
> mailets... kind of strange considering that mailets are supposed to be 
> the "main purpose" of James.  I probably missed it.  Can you point me 
> to the right URL?

I don't think there is a repository for mailets just yet.

> In reply to your questions:
>
> a)
> I'll preface that the mailet I am implementing is not for everyone.  I 
> expect that 10% of administrators will find it too restrictive, while 
> the rest will probably find it ideal.
>
> The mailet will reject all email from sources that were not 
> preapproved in a whitelist.  Associated tools will handle managing of 
> the list and allow new HUMAN senders to request addition to the list 
> in a manner that is not annoying to the receiving user.

Whitelist are evil! I receive tons of those "are you really you?" 
emails because those bastard warms forge the email address.

Do you realize that by creating a whitelist you are, in fact, becoming 
a spammer yourself?

> c)
>
> I have read the ASF license and related info (or as much as I could 
> understand), and it seems acceptable since my primary goal is to end 
> spam once and for all,

with whitelists? please

> but I'd like you to clarify a couple of points:
>
> 1. Will I be able to keep credit as the author of the mailet?  If so, 
> how?

with the @author tag in javadocs.

> 2. If this anti-spam measure is as successful as I expect it to be, I 
> fear that the spammers of the world will try anything to kill it and 
> the Microsofts of the world will try to steal it.

And you think that a software license would stop a corporation from 
taking one of their programmers and reimplement the software you wrote?

What you are looking for is called "software patent". You can't get one 
in europe (yet)... or you can apply for one in the US. It's very 
expensive and takes years. By that time, the spam problem will have 
been solved by somebody else anyway.

> Because of it I have been sitting on this design for 3 years.

[paint puzzled look on my face]

> Is it true that the Apache Software Foundation provides free legal 
> defense for its contributors if they are sued as a consequence of a 
> contribution?

This never happened in the past, but yes, you cannot be sued if you 
contribute the code to the foundation because the foundation is the 
owner and not you. But keep in mind that this only works if you did 
nothing illegal. If the foundation finds out that you did something 
illegal, you are on your own.

> If it is not, I will not be able to contribute it and will have to go 
> make it commercial just to make enough money to defend myself.

Whatever.

--
Stefano.