Re: [PLUG] cultural ethics of email and spam

["Brent Saner" <brent.saner@gmail.com>]

the issue isn't the EULA/TOS here, it goes deeper to the actual ethics. YES, we know the ISP doesn't LIKE it. that's not the problem. the problem is that they BLACK it. it's beyond a matter of "they're just doing their job" because the same thing can be said of a certain software company that currently holds market majority of OS. if you pay for 
internet service, you expect to be not limited. and to each man his own, with great power comes great responsibility, etc.

when you buy a pencil, you don't expect it to be able to only write certain words- no, you expect to be able to write anything you want with it! in the same way, data services ought not be tiered.

On 10/17/07, John Von Essen <john@essenz.com> wrote:

Read your Terms of Service for your broadband internet provider. 

Residential user's email originating at an MTA behind their home connection is considered spam by most remote systems because that activity is not allowed. And I have no sympathy for people who run MTA's behind Comcast, violate ToS, then complain that they "should" be allowed to do this and why is everyone unfairly blocking.

If you want to run a server, buy business-class cable or DSL. If you want to be cheap and break the rules to cheat the system, suffer the consequences.

-John

On Oct 17, 2007, at 3:47 PM, zuzu wrote:

On 10/17/07, John Von Essen < john@essenz.com> wrote:

Broadband users will always have difficulty sending email out to the

internet.

Either the ISP is blocking port 25 outbound - in which case it wont work at

all, or your email does get delivered, but is blocked as spam since you are

coming from a known dynamic IP used for broadband customers.

The DUL blacklists are very widely used, and are a staple in the war against

spam since legitimate email should not be originated from an MTA on a

residential broadband connection. Some orgs are more aggressive then others

with their blocking tactics for DUL email origination.

I forked this thread because I don't want to derail the useful

technical issues of the parent thread.

however, I'm still frustrated at the culture of email admins for the

following reasons:

1a.) blacklists are draconian and a form of "tiered internet".  if you

advocate for "net neutrality", start with your mail servers.

1b.) who are you (or anyone) to unilaterally decide "legitimate mail

should not originate from residential broadband"???  of course it

should!  the internet is a PEER network.  if the software didn't

happen to suck, everyone really should be hosting their own MTA on

their own home server.  centralization via concentration of hosts is

re-creating a censorable and controllable media vehicle; this is a Bad

Thing (tm).

2.) why on earth is spam being dealt with at a _network_ level???

(again, echos of tiered internet and violation of the End-to-End

Principle.)  let end-users MUAs handle spam, such as with bayesian

classification.

the hypocrisy between "net neutrality" advocates and "spam problem"

advocates (who are essentially the same people) astounds me.

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John Von Essen (john@essenz.com)

President, Essenz Consulting www.essenz.com

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-- 
Brent Saner
215.264.0112(cell)
215.362.7696(residence)

http://www.thenotebookarmy.org
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