[ On Mon, November 24, 1997 at 22:54:45 (-0500), Evan Leibovitch wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [EXIM] RBL
>
> No they don't share everything. The innocent users of a spam-friendly mail
> host take part in nothing more than the use of services for a fee. Where
> in heaven's name is there *any* notion that such users share in profits,
> or own a piece of the assets, or have any say in the decisions?
Oh, but they do. That's the power and the plight of the consumer. Of
course the customers don't share in profits but they certainly
contribute to them. If users can't convince their ISPs to mend their
ways then they can certainly stop paying to support them. As I've
already said: almost everyone everywhere has a choice these days (though
not always at a cut-rate price -- but that's the "price" you pay to save
hard currency).
> I draw mine when people refuse to take responsibilty for their actions,
> hiding behind forged IDs and innocent relay hosts.
Unfortunately I don't think the RBL (or a privately maintained list like
mine) is really going to do much good here without becoming far too
much like Big Brother for comfort (eg. blocking relay hosts just because
they've been attacked -- the victim will suffer twice).
The only practical solution (other than going out and helping upgrade
the probably zillions of mailers around the world that currently allow
third-party relay by default, or waiting for most of them to get hit and
be forced to upgrade) is to work with the access providing ISPs to
ensure that they only permit authorized users to make SMTP connections
outside their networks (just as corporate users normally do). I.e. all
the el-cheap-o dial-up accounts *must* be forced to use the ISP's own
mail relay host(s). Then we can work with the ISPs to help them find
reasonable limits for the number of messages and number of addresses per
message that they'll allow their users to send per day.
Only after we put a stop to the illegal theft-of-service kind of spam
will a list of black-listed spammers be of any real value to those of us
who don't want *any* junk e-mail.
I don't really care if the spammers reveal their real-world identity to
me or not, just so long as they are forced to always use a consistent
set of IP addresses that I can block at will at any level, layer, or
access point I choose.
--
Greg A. Woods
+1 416 443-1734 VE3TCP <gwoods@???> <robohack!woods>
Planix, Inc. <woods@???>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@???>
--
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