Have you considered asking Brent Chapman these questions directly?
I know the latest version does most of these, yet I do not know any
that will do bullet #2. In fact, #2 unless the "someone" is the mail
administrator, would be considered a huge security hole. Theft of
resources, etc.
Dan Liston
"Chawla, Jay" wrote:
>
> > Dear Majordomo developers:
> >
> > I am trying to invalidate 2 patents filed on February 1, 1996 that claim
> > functionality that I believe existed in majordomo prior to February 1,
> > 1995. (Anything that does what a patent claims more than 1 year before
> > the filing date of the patent invalidates the patent.)
> >
> > Roughly speaking, these patents claim:
> >
> > o A group messaging server (GMS) that receives messages addressed to a
> > group and forwards those messages to all group members
> > o An ability for someone to create a messaging group by sending a message
> > to the GMS with the name of the new group
> > o An ability for someone to send a message to the GMS specifying a group,
> > and have the GMS add that person to the group
> > o An ability for someone to send a message to the GMS specifying a group,
> > and have the GMS delete that person from the group
> > o Every group has a name. To send a message to the group, a person sends
> > the message to the GMS with the name of the group
> > o The GMS can 'aggregate' messages -- that is, it can take a sequence of
> > messages to a group, glob them together and send the resulting big message
> > to the group
> >
> > Does majordomo (and message digests) do these things? It would not be
> > sufficient if the 'GMS' just told a sender who the group members are --
> > the routing has to follow what's in the patent. I.e., the GMS must:
> >
> > 1. receive a message specifying a group
> > 2. forward that message to everyone in the group, possibly aggregating
> > the messages
> >
> > If majordomo did any (not necessarily all) of these things prior to
> > February 1, 1995, I would *very much* appreciate if you could point me to
> > any source code and other documentation with documented
> > publication/distribution dates prior to February 1995, that could be used
> > to prove it.
> >
> > I am aware of Brent Chapman's 1992 paper in LISA VI, but I need something
> > with more detail that documents the above described functionality from the
> > patents. I am also able to get the source code for Release 1.94.5 from
> > the web, but I believe that that release is too recent to be useful in
> > invalidating the patents.
> >
> > Thank you for any help you can give me! Also, if you have any questions,
> > do not hesitate to contact me via email or telephone.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Jay Chawla
> > ___________________________________________________________________
> > Jay Chawla, Patent Agent Cooley Godward LLP
> >
> > *Voice: 703-456-8141 One Freedom Square
> >
> > *Fax: 703-456-8100 Reston Town Center
> >
> > *E-Mail: jchawla@cooley.com 11951 Freedom Drive, Suite 1700
> > http://www.cooley.com/reston/ Reston, VA 20190-5601
> > This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and
> > may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized
> > review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the
> > intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy
> > all copies of the original message.
> >
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