(OT) Re: Mail servers changes (INFO)

From: John Wilson <wilson_at_dbit.dbit.com>
Date: Thu Feb 24 12:31:05 2000

On Thu, Feb 24, 2000 at 09:42:28AM -0800, Chris Kennedy wrote:
> Interestingly, the opinion was that it's okay to filter *on behalf
> of the user*, i.e., if the *user* tells us to filter the mail (or
> constructs their own filters) then we're off the hook,

OK then! Jay -- as a user of this list, I request that you go all-out and
put in whatever spam blocks you can.

I'm constantly deluged in spam from every side so anything to filter even
one possible source is OK by me. UUCP and Bitnet are long gone, the net
isn't a cooperative bunch of non-profit institutions scratching each other's
backs to get the packets through any more. Every step of the way is paid
for by the people using it and it's perfectly reasonable for them to refuse
to allow their systems to be used to generate someone else's advertising,
*especially* when the intent is not only to steal services, but to hide
the thief's identity so they won't be held accountable.

This crap about opt-in mailing lists is especially annoying. I've never
opted into one of these things in my life, in fact every time anyone asks for
my email address when I'm making an order or whatever, I specifically tell
them *not* to put me on any mailing lists. But these days most of my spam
contains an accusation that I *asked* for it -- I suppose they think this
is some kind of legal loophole, they can play dumb and say they *thought*
I opted in. I even got one of these from PLX Tech recently, you'd think
a reputable IC manufacturer would know better...

And these days I keep my fax machine turned off too -- seriously 9 out of 10
faxes I was getting were commercial spam, even though that's a direct violation
of the FCC rules (which say that you can't send unsolicited commercial faxes
to anyone unless you have an established business relationship with them).
Apparently these bozos see my print ads and figure that the reason I thousands
per year for the ads is actually because I'm just itching to buy their piles
of used monitors, and I want to let them use *my* printer and ink cartridge
to print their ads. Usually they leave off the header giving the originating
fax number, which is also illegal.

What happened to the good old days when this crap only came by snail mail and
cost nothing!

John Wilson
D Bit
Received on Thu Feb 24 2000 - 12:31:05 GMT