[Spambayes]
Re: egregious patents on anti-spam techniques (Kaitlin Duck
Sherwood)
Gary Robinson
grobinson at transpose.com
Thu Jan 30 12:11:39 EST 2003
> Patent application on adaptive spam filtering:
> <http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/net
> ahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=3&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=email.TTL.&OS=TTL/em
> ail&RS=TTL/email>
I looked at this last night.
I am not a lawyer, so don't go to the bank on what I say. And I didn't spend
a huge amount of time on it.
But I do have some experience with patents, and I do understand the
spambayes approach and the gist of their approach. It is my impression that
the patent does not have a scope that encompasses Graham-derived filters,
because they do not calculate "first" and "second" "symantic anchors" as the
term is used in Claim 1.
They seem to be trying to make a straightforward adaptation of technology
that works well for classifying documents according to subject area, latent
semantic analysis, into the spam realm.
It would be very, very interesting to code and test their algorithm's
performance against that of spambayes.
One aspect of using latent semantic analysis is that it treats synonyms of
known spammy words much as it does the spammy words themselves. It's
sophisticated technology. But I'm not sure that its advantages matter much
for spam detection with the kind of data we have available. It would be very
interesting to know.
--Gary
--
[http://ThisURLEnablesEmailToGetThroughOverzealousSpamFilters.org]
Gary Robinson
CEO
Transpose, LLC
grobinson at transpose.com
207-942-3463
http://www.transpose.com
http://radio.weblogs.com/0101454
> From: spambayes-request at python.org
> Reply-To: spambayes at python.org
> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 17:50:54 -0500
> To: spambayes at python.org
> Subject: Spambayes Digest, Vol 53, Issue 55
>
> Send Spambayes mailing list submissions to
> spambayes at python.org
>
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>
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>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Spambayes digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Outlook plugin notes (Skip Montanaro)
> 2. Re: Alpha 2 Release? (Richie Hindle)
> 3. Re: Outlook plugin notes (Tim Stone - Four Stones Expressions)
> 4. Re: Alpha 2 Release? (Francois Granger)
> 5. Re: Alpha 2 Release? (Neale Pickett)
> 6. Re: Alpha 2 Release? (Richie Hindle)
> 7. Re: Alpha 2 Release? (Francois Granger)
> 8. Re: Details in headers (G. Armour Van Horn)
> 9. RE: Outlook plugin notes (Meyer, Tony)
> 10. RE: Outlook plugin notes (Meyer, Tony)
> 11. egregious patents on anti-spam techniques (Kaitlin Duck Sherwood)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 11:04:46 -0600
> From: Skip Montanaro <skip at pobox.com>
> To: Neale Pickett <neale at woozle.org>
> Cc: spambayes at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Outlook plugin notes
> Message-ID: <15928.2478.537965.516443 at montanaro.dyndns.org>
> In-Reply-To: <w53adhk2ahb.fsf at woozle.org>
> References: <w53adhk2ahb.fsf at woozle.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> MIME-Version: 1.0
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> Precedence: list
> Reply-To: skip at pobox.com
> Message: 1
>
>
> Neale> One of our more tenacious tech writers ...
>
> You know when a company has good tech writers because their documentation is
> head and shoulders above the competitions. I like to think of them as
> librarians without the Donna Reed ("It's a Wonderful Life") personality. ;-)
>
> Good tech writers also make extremely good testers because they want the
> documentation and the application to match exactly.
>
> Skip
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 17:50:47 +0000
> From: Richie Hindle <richie at entrian.com>
> To: spambayes at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Alpha 2 Release?
> Message-ID: <88gd3v4cj7v7qmdl28hofbj2ptih6hd13s at 4ax.com>
> In-Reply-To: <w53ptqi1ej4.fsf at woozle.org>
> References: <a4233vsjdua1o8ufi2d1f8mei91o1h2eda at 4ax.com>
> <w53ptqi1ej4.fsf at woozle.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> Precedence: list
> Reply-To: richie at entrian.com
> Message: 2
>
>
> [Neale]
>> Thanks a ton for putting a release together, Richie.
>
> No problem. I'm hoping to do this on Friday evening UK time, if that's OK
> with everyone else?
>
> I'll fix the Mac OS X stack size problem for pop3proxy before the release -
> I may not have time to do it "properly" by introducing a new
> platform-dependent module, but we can munge things around afterwards. It's
> more important to get a release out before the Linux Journal articles are
> published, and it only seems to be the pop3proxy that has the problem.
>
> François, I haven't forgotten about you pop3proxy problem - if I have time
> for a deeper investigation I'll do one.
>
> --
> Richie
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 12:21:06 -0600
> From: Tim Stone - Four Stones Expressions <tim at fourstonesExpressions.com>
> To: Neale Pickett <neale at woozle.org>, skip at pobox.com
> Cc: spambayes at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Outlook plugin notes
> Message-ID: <WRGAFDN72MLPK7Q4398YUIHHE87HD.3e381b92 at myst>
> In-Reply-To: <15928.2478.537965.516443 at montanaro.dyndns.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Precedence: list
> Reply-To: tim at fourstonesExpressions.com
> Message: 3
>
> 1/29/2003 11:04:46 AM, Skip Montanaro <skip at pobox.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Neale> One of our more tenacious tech writers ...
>>
>> You know when a company has good tech writers because their documentation is
>> head and shoulders above the competitions. I like to think of them as
>> librarians without the Donna Reed ("It's a Wonderful Life") personality. ;-)
>>
>> Good tech writers also make extremely good testers because they want the
>> documentation and the application to match exactly.
> Think we could get her to write our doc? - TimS
>>
>> Skip
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Spambayes mailing list
>> Spambayes at python.org
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes
>>
>>
>
>
> c'est moi - TimS
> http://www.fourstonesExpressions.com
> http://wecanstopspam.org
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 20:02:18 +0100
> From: Francois Granger <francois.granger at free.fr>
> To: richie at entrian.com
> Cc: spambayes at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Alpha 2 Release?
> Message-ID: <a05200f2aba5dd54b1b98@[192.168.1.20]>
> In-Reply-To: <88gd3v4cj7v7qmdl28hofbj2ptih6hd13s at 4ax.com>
> References: <a4233vsjdua1o8ufi2d1f8mei91o1h2eda at 4ax.com>
> <w53ptqi1ej4.fsf at woozle.org> <88gd3v4cj7v7qmdl28hofbj2ptih6hd13s at 4ax.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed"
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> Precedence: list
> Message: 4
>
> At 17:50 +0000 28/01/2003, in message Re: [Spambayes] Alpha 2
> Release?, Richie Hindle wrote:
>> [Neale]
>>> Thanks a ton for putting a release together, Richie.
>
> My thanks as well.
>
>> François, I haven't forgotten about you pop3proxy problem - if I have time
>> for a deeper investigation I'll do one.
>
> No problem.
> I did not saw the classification problem since the other day. It
> seems that it is solved.
>
> I got a new fresh traceback tonight when I asked for review:
>
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>
> File "/Volumes/OS99/spambayes/spambayes/Dibbler.py", line 398, in
> found_terminator
> getattr(plugin, name)(**params)
>
> File "/Volumes/OS99/spambayes/pop3proxy.py", line 932, in onReview
> self._appendMessages(page.table, messages, label)
>
> File "/Volumes/OS99/spambayes/pop3proxy.py", line 823, in _appendMessages
> table += row
>
> File "/Volumes/OS99/spambayes/spambayes/PyMeldLite.py", line 787, in __iadd__
> nodes = self._nodeListFromSource(other)
>
> File "/Volumes/OS99/spambayes/spambayes/PyMeldLite.py", line 640,
> in _nodeListFromSource
> tree = _generateTree("<x>"+value+"</x>")
>
> File "/Volumes/OS99/spambayes/spambayes/PyMeldLite.py", line 574,
> in _generateTree
> g.feed(source)
>
> File "/Volumes/OS99/spambayes/spambayes/PyMeldLite.py", line 499, in feed
> self._parser.Parse(data)
>
> File "/Volumes/OS99/spambayes/spambayes/PyMeldLite.py", line 529,
> in StartElementHandler
> newAttributes[str(name)] = self._unmungeEntities(str(value))
>
> UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character '\ue9' in
> position 86: ordinal not in range(128)
>
>
>
>
> --
> Recently using MacOSX.......
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 12:38:21 -0800
> From: Neale Pickett <neale at woozle.org>
> To: Francois Granger <francois.granger at free.fr>
> Cc: spambayes at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Alpha 2 Release?
> Message-ID: <w53r8avzo76.fsf at woozle.org>
> In-Reply-To: <a05200f2aba5dd54b1b98@[192.168.1.20]> (Francois Granger's
> message of "Wed, 29 Jan 2003 20:02:18 +0100")
> References: <a4233vsjdua1o8ufi2d1f8mei91o1h2eda at 4ax.com>
> <w53ptqi1ej4.fsf at woozle.org>
> <88gd3v4cj7v7qmdl28hofbj2ptih6hd13s at 4ax.com>
> <a05200f2aba5dd54b1b98@[192.168.1.20]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Precedence: list
> Message: 5
>
> Francois Granger <francois.granger at free.fr> writes:
>
>> UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character '\ue9' in
>> position 86: ordinal not in range(128)
>
> Yeah, my wife's been getting those too. I'll look into her traceback.
>
> Yikes! I just swallowed the tine of a plastic fork!
>
> Neale
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 21:41:33 +0000
> From: Richie Hindle <richie at entrian.com>
> To: spambayes at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Alpha 2 Release?
> Message-ID: <c2ud3vk5hbtoukl1547q8eesvrfl3a7bbe at 4ax.com>
> In-Reply-To: <w53r8avzo76.fsf at woozle.org>
> References: <a4233vsjdua1o8ufi2d1f8mei91o1h2eda at 4ax.com>
> <88gd3v4cj7v7qmdl28hofbj2ptih6hd13s at 4ax.com>
> <a05200f2aba5dd54b1b98@[192.168.1.20]> <w53r8avzo76.fsf at woozle.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> Precedence: list
> Reply-To: richie at entrian.com
> Message: 6
>
>
> [François]
>> UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character '\ue9' in
>> position 86: ordinal not in range(128)
>
> This is bizarre. This is expat complaining that you can't have high-bit
> characters in ASCII XML, which is quite right, but I replace all those
> characters with charrefs on the way in:
>
>>>> def replaceHighCharacters(match):
> ... return "&#%d;" % ord(match.group(1))
> ...
>>>> re.sub('([\x80-\xff])', replaceHighCharacters, u"a b \xe9 c d")
> u'a b é c d'
>
> So what's going on...?
>
>
>> Yikes! I just swallowed the tine of a plastic fork!
>
> That'll teach you to try to get out of doing the washing up. 8-)
>
> --
> Richie Hindle
> richie at entrian.com
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 22:40:03 +0100
> From: Francois Granger <francois.granger at free.fr>
> To: spambayes at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Alpha 2 Release?
> Message-ID: <a05200f2bba5dfa5c91b6@[192.168.1.20]>
> In-Reply-To: <w53r8avzo76.fsf at woozle.org>
> References: <a4233vsjdua1o8ufi2d1f8mei91o1h2eda at 4ax.com>
> <88gd3v4cj7v7qmdl28hofbj2ptih6hd13s at 4ax.com>
> <a05200f2aba5dd54b1b98@[192.168.1.20]> <w53r8avzo76.fsf at woozle.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Precedence: list
> Message: 7
>
> At 12:38 -0800 29/01/2003, in message Re: [Spambayes] Alpha 2
> Release?, Neale Pickett wrote:
>> Francois Granger <francois.granger at free.fr> writes:
>>
>>> UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character '\ue9' in
>>> position 86: ordinal not in range(128)
>>
>> Yeah, my wife's been getting those too. I'll look into her traceback.
>
> Your wife speaks some foreign language ? ;-)
>
>> Yikes! I just swallowed the tine of a plastic fork!
>
> My apologies for this, it is not _that_ important ;-)
>
> Thanks for all.
>
> --
> Recently using MacOSX.......
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 14:11:55 -0800
> From: "G. Armour Van Horn" <vanhorn at whidbey.com>
> Cc: spambayes at python.org
> Subject: Re: [Spambayes] Details in headers
> Message-ID: <3E3851AB.18018F9E at whidbey.com>
> References:
> <16E1010E4581B049ABC51D4975CEDB886199BD at UKDCX001.uk.int.atosorigin.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> Precedence: list
> Reply-To: vanhorn at whidbey.com
> Message: 8
>
> Speaking as one who provides tech support for a hundred or so Windows
> users, I find it perverse to put any file where Windows may change it or
> obscure it. Against the flow from Redmond, I want my users to put their
> data in folders they specifically control (normally on a file server,
> never in "My Documents"). I want applications to put everything possible
> in their respective directories, not in the registry, not in the current
> equivalent of /windows/system. (And I always want to see all file
> extensions!)
>
> I imagine that I'll end up putting some form of Spambayes on at least a
> couple of dozen systems, so I'll get used to whatever is done, but I'd
> strongly prefer that the file locations be easily understood and easily
> learned so others don't have to spend so much time when a user messes an
> installation up.
>
> Van
>
> "Moore, Paul" wrote:
>
>> From: Piers Haken [mailto:piersh at friskit.com]
>>> I think that's a bit harsh. The directory is called
>>> "Application Data", not "My Documents": it's designed
>>> to be used by well-behaved applications only and it's
>>> generally a bad idea for users to go mucking about with
>>> stuff in there
>>
>> Sorry - I thought we were talking about the location of
>> the INI file, which (at the moment, at least) is intended
>> to be user editable.
>>
>> I've no problem with this location for purely application
>> maintained configuration data.
>>
>> But I still think that there should at least be an option
>> for the application directory to get deleted on uninstall -
>> otherwise you get the same problem as with the registry of
>> configuration data for uninstalled applications just getting
>> left around and forgotten.
>>
>> Paul.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Spambayes mailing list
>> Spambayes at python.org
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes
>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Sign up now for Quotes of the Day, a handful of quotations
> on a theme delivered every morning.
> Enlightenment! Daily, for free!
> mailto:twisted at whidbey.com?subject=Subscribe_QOTD
>
> For web hosting and maintenance,
> visit Van's home page: http://www.domainvanhorn.com/van/
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 11:32:01 +1300
> From: "Meyer, Tony" <T.A.Meyer at massey.ac.nz>
> To: <spambayes at python.org>
> Subject: RE: [Spambayes] Outlook plugin notes
> Message-ID: <1ED4ECF91CDED24C8D012BCF2B034F1318CD37 at its-xchg4.massey.ac.nz>
> Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
> Precedence: list
> Message: 9
>
>> * In her words, "When you filter to an online folder, SpamBayes
>> automatically disables filtering when you connect offline. What I
>> would like is that when I reconnect, SpamBayes should automatically
>> reenable filtering and run it against those folders. Now I=20
>> have to do this manually."
> I don't use any offline features, so I can't comment on this.
>
>> * Apparently Outlook comes with a "Junk Email" folder.
> Hmm...does anyone else's Outlook have a "Junk Email" folder? Mine (2000 =
> SR1) certainly didn't come with one.
>
>> * She feels end-users need more education about what "spam-possible" =
> means.
> That would be a documentation issue, right? And wasn't she a writer? =
> ....
>
>> * The sliders in the configuration window should have tick marks.
> I guess I would agree with that. I don't know who would even use the =
> sliders when there's a text box just there, but ...
>
>> * In the anti-spam dialog box:
>> o Enable filtering checkbox should be below filters, since you have
>> to enable filtering before you can mess with the filters.
> Agreed.
>
>> o The filters box needs a scrollbar, for those with a ton of =
> folders
>> to filter so you can see the text.
> Or some other way of showing them all. A scrollbar would make it ugly, =
> wouldn't it?
>
>> * Add a "spam column" in the anti-spam pulldown, so it's easy to add a
>> new "spam %" column in the current folder view.
> Is it possible to customise the current view via code? I wondered about =
> doing this myself, since I seem to be constantly adding the column to =
> new folders, but couldn't find any information about doing so (I must =
> admit I didn't look that hard).
>
>> * She says that the plugin is definitely not filtering public folders.
> This might be an issue that has been resolved (I'm not sure what version =
> the release had). I'm checking this out on my system, but I don't have =
> a lot of (mail) public folders (they're mostly calendars). I'll have to =
> wait until one of them gets mail.
>
>> * She suggested deleting from public folders should go into a public
>> spam folder.
> Perhaps there could be an option to have mail from each folder you =
> filter:
> (a) go to the same uncertain/spam folders [as now]
> (b) go to individual uncertain/spam folders [one set per filtered =
> folder]
> This would be quite a big interface change, though. Do people think =
> it's worth it?
>
>> * All outbound mail should be trained as ham
>> I really like this last one. I don't know if anyone's ever thought of
>> training on outbound mail before.
> Tim's post on this is in the November 2002 archive - "Bayes Training". =
> The arguments against were:
> * Because some spam is 'from' yourself, this deteriates the helpfulness =
> of the from header.
> * It's easy to find enough ham; much more deteriates the ratio.
>
> If a user saves their outgoing mail (in "Sent Items"), for example, then =
> it's easy to train on that folder. I do this.
>
> =3DTony Meyer
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 11:36:44 +1300
> From: "Meyer, Tony" <T.A.Meyer at massey.ac.nz>
> To: <spambayes at python.org>
> Subject: RE: [Spambayes] Outlook plugin notes
> Message-ID: <1ED4ECF91CDED24C8D012BCF2B034F1318D3D7 at its-xchg4.massey.ac.nz>
> Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
> Precedence: list
> Message: 10
>
>>> * Apparently Outlook comes with a "Junk Email" folder.
>> Hmm...does anyone else's Outlook have a "Junk Email" folder? =20
>> Mine (2000 SR1) certainly didn't come with one.
>
> I take this back. If you use the Adult Mail/Junk Mail rules that =
> Outlook offers, then if you chose the 'move mail' option and the 'junk =
> mail' folder, then you are prompted to create a new "Junk Mail" folder.
>
> However, not every user will have one of these. I would suggest that =
> the best option would be to change the documentation to suggest that _if =
> there is one_ then to use the Junk Mail folder. I guess the plugin =
> could check to see if there was an existing 'junk mail' folder and =
> default to it, but then it could check for a 'spam' folder and default =
> to that, too. Depends on what people are likely to have.
>
> =3DTony Meyer
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2003 14:53:06 -0800
> From: Kaitlin Duck Sherwood <ducky at webfoot.com>
> To: spambayes at python.org
> Subject: [Spambayes] egregious patents on anti-spam techniques
> Message-ID: <p0510030fba5e07ee9a74@[10.0.0.2]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT
> Precedence: list
> Message: 11
>
> Gang --
>
> I've recently become aware of two egregious patent applications
> related to spam fighting. The first one looks like it might
> conceivably cover Bayesian filtering. It would be good if someone
> more familiar with Bayesian/classifier/machine learning theory could
> check it out and perhaps challenge ("protest") the application.
>
> The second is on using whitelists, blacklists, challenge-response,
> and digital signatures to combat spam. I plan to protest that one
> myself. I have killer prior art for whitelists, blacklists, and
> challenge-response (see p.82 of _Stopping Spam_ by Schwartz &
> Garfinkel, 1998). I do not know of prior art for using digital
> signatures in the service of stopping spam. If you know of prior art
> for that, you might want to issue a protest and/or send me the info.
>
> (If you send me prior art on digital signatures/spam, please
> + read the patent claims first
> + put PRIOR ART in the subject line.)
>
> I'm going to Japan for ten days, leaving Friday morning, and will not
> have email connectivity then.
>
> To protest a patent, you need to file prior art (within 60 days!)
> with the patent office. See:
> http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/1900.htm
> and
> http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/0600_610.htm#sect610
>
> Patent application on adaptive spam filtering:
> <http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/net
> ahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=3&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=email.TTL.&OS=TTL/em
> ail&RS=TTL/email>
>
>
> Patent application on whitelists, blacklists, challenge-response, and
> digital signatures used in spam-fighting:
> <http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p
> =1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1='20030009698'.PGNR.&OS=DN/20
> 030009698&RS=DN/20030009698>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Spambayes mailing list
> Spambayes at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/spambayes
>
>
> End of Spambayes Digest, Vol 53, Issue 55
> *****************************************
>
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