That's the only loss.
A name is just a name. If the code was bad, nobody would care about SA. A good product goes by any name.
Barry Jaspan wrote:
Everyone, please calm down!
The amount of confusion on this list is staggering. One very important point that many people seem to be missing:
Network Associates did *not* buy SpamAssassin!
NAI bought Deersoft, Inc. Deersoft develops and sells some products, and NAI now owns those. Deersoft's products incorporate SpamAssassin, probably including some custom modifications to SpamAssassin. But Deersoft did not own SpamAssassin, because it is open-source under the GPL or PAL. So NAI doesn't own it, either.
This means that NAI has no ability to restrict anyone's use of the open SpamAssassin code-base in any way. No cease-and-desist letters, no licensing fees, nothing.
Deersoft did own the trademark on the name "SpamAssassin" (presumably, Justin sold it to them at some point in the past). Now, NAI owns that trademark. This means that NAI can control how that trademark is used in certain commercial ways. So, they might try to force the open-source project to stop using that name. If they do, they may or may not succeed (for a variety of complicated legal reasons). But they've already said they don't plan to use the name, and it doesn't make much business sense for them to use it anyway. So I doubt they will care. But in the very worst case, the project can simply rename itself. And I really doubt the worst case will happen (or even can happen).
So, this buyout of Deersoft really changes very little. Deersoft was already selling a commercial version of SpamAssassin. Spamnix sells one too, and there are others as well. So now NAI is (and they could have even without buying Deersoft, although maybe they didn't understand that). Any company that is competing with NAI's spam blocking products was already competing with several other SA-based products. Maybe NAI will be a more formidable competitor, or maybe not. So what has really changed?
I congratulate Justin et al for their efforts and for their succe$$. I hope they made a boatload of money in this deal. They deserve it.
Barry
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