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The guy who claims he invented E-Mail is slowly rewriting history one lawsuit at a time. The wannabe politician, whom many would call a charlatan, using the money from the Gawker case has turned his sights on Techdirt in an effort to squelch historical facts about the origins of e-mail. While this SLAPP suit may look for now on the surface like it is aimed at a single site, Techdirt, regarding a single topic, e-mail, the long term goal might be to take all journalism down a notch or two.
The five-page story on Ars Technica is a deep dive into the history — RFCs, major programs, interviews, etc. They even had an interview with Shiva Ayyadurai. Here's an extract from the intro:
Ayyadurai did write a program called "EMAIL" for use by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now a part of Rutgers). He copyrighted the code in 1982. But Ayyadurai today makes the far more significant claim that he invented "the electronic mail system as we know it today," even though his code had little impact beyond the university. Mainstream tech history books don't even mention Ayyadurai—unless you count the several books Ayyadurai has written about himself.
On the ARPAnet, the predecessor to the Internet, electronic mail conventions were well-established by the mid-1970s. Dave Crocker, one of a group of ARPAnet pioneers despised by Ayyadurai, told Ars that he wasn't just using e-mail by 1974—he was positively addicted to it, a full three decades before the smartphone.
And another snippet, from their interview with Ayyadurai:
As we persisted in asking what was somehow un-e-mail-like about older 1970s technologies, like the Xerox Alto—Ayyadurai grew more agitated.
"Let's stop right there," he said. "Let's stop. They didn't call it 'e-mail.' You see, you guys want to separate the term. That's wrong, okay? That's wrong. This is what's been going on, Joe, for four fucking years.
"According to Wikipedia, e-mail is the exchange of digital messages," he continued. "Right? Is that a right definition? It is a fucking wrong definition! E-mail is not the exchange of digital messages. That would make Facebook e-mail, it would make every fucking thing e-mail! If you want to talk to the expert—which is me—there are three types of messaging. There's short messaging, which goes back all the way to the smoke signal. Okay? There's community messaging, and there's formal messaging."
So if someone was sending a text document electronically, we asked, from one person to another, on a networked computer—why didn't that count as e-mail?
"Did they call it 'e-mail'?" he said. "No. I defined e-mail! And you guys have got to give me that credit."
Vint Cerf, who is a co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocol that underpins the Internet itself, told us there's "no evidence that Ayyadurai's work had any impact on the development of electronic messages that stem from early ARPAnet work." We asked Ayyadurai about this quote.
"What does Vint Cerf know?" demanded Ayyadurai. "I know Vint Cerf. They created their Internet Hall of Fame seven days after I went in the Smithsonian. Are you aware of that? These guys want to re-write their history."
Seriously, as much as it goes against tradition here, the entire article is well-worth reading. Are there any graybeards and/or former mail admins or even long ago users who wish to chime in with their experiences with e-mail in the pre/post August 1982 time frame?
(Score: 5, Informative) by kaszz on Saturday June 17 2017, @03:43PM (3 children)
SNDMSG on machines with the operating system TENEX were extended with the @ symbol by Ray Tomlinson so that it could send email to users on other machines in 1971. Unix "mail" command were released in 1971.
RFC 561 from 1973 and "transmitted over the FTP telnet connection":
Seem familiar?
RFC 733 from 1977 specifies the standard for the format of ARPA network text messages. UUCP was originally written at AT&T Bell Laboratories by Mike Lesk and in use by 1978. A free version were written from scratch in 1991. In 1979 "delivermail" were released.
Oh and, when the ARPANET switched to TCP/IP in 1982, MTAs no longer needed to rely on FTP for delivery. As for anyone wondering on the use of weird network protocols (IMP, NCP etc). DNS came around 1983.
Conclusion: DEBUNKED *plonk*
Now the important matter is to curtail any attempt to lash out SLAPP suits around him. I heard doctors in white coats with special garments can be helpful in that matter..
Speaking of lawyers and lawsuits, make sure that the karma for forcing Berkeley to cut off public access to tens of thousands of free video lectures and podcasts [insidehighered.com] because two employees at Gallaudet University filed a lawsuit for not being accessible to deaf persons.
block quick proto any from 184.154.0.0/16 to any # gallaudet.edu
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Sunday June 18 2017, @12:37AM (2 children)
We had an electronic mail protocol at MIT, in the late 70s. Alas, I am not a CS guru and I have no idea how it worked under the hood. I kinda hated computers then. They were pretty horrible.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday June 18 2017, @05:27AM (1 child)
No name on the protocol or year?
At least things were simpler then in another way that they aren't now.
(Score: 2) by KGIII on Sunday June 18 2017, @06:23AM
Fall of '79, maybe '80. No idea the protocol. I am pretty sure it was a new system by '87. Err... I skipped four years to go earn money. The GI Bill only allows for a four year degree, though that may have changed by now. By that time, getting my education was paid for, but I needed to also support my family. So, I left academia for four years and I'm pretty sure there was a different messaging service the second time.
As strange as this may sound, I kinds hated computers then. In my defense, they were pretty horrible.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."