Microsoft cuts licensings cords on Sender ID

Microsoft's Sender ID email authentication technology can now be used without fear of the software behemoth's intellectual property lawyers.

Redmond said it is making the "Sender ID Framework" available under its Open Specification Promise (OSP) programme. That means Microsoft will not sue anyone who creates products or services based on the email tech.

The move is part of an effort to promote interoperability among commercial and open source software products, and among internet access providers that utilise email authentication, Microsoft said in a statement.

It said: "Users will be able to implement, commercialise and modify Microsoft's patented email authentication technology without having to sign a licensing agreement."

Sender ID is a caller ID-like system for email meant to help fight spam and related cyber scams such as phishing. Microsoft has been pushing the technology for a couple of years as a partial solution to junk email. Intellectual property issues have flared up in the past as a roadblock to adoption.

Microsoft announced the OSP in September, when it said 38 web services specifications would be available under the promise. Earlier this month, it was expanded to include the Virtual Hard Disk Image Format specification.

Nearly two years after Sender ID's launch, 36 per cent of all legitimate email sent worldwide uses the technology, via about five million domains, according to Microsoft data.

Joris Evers writes for CNET News.com