> From: Len Conrad > > > > Why would the typical business absolutely insist on NOT relaying its > > > outbound through the provider's SMTP gateway? > > > >Because they are running a mail server, so why would a > mailserver *not* be > >allowed to deliver the mail?
Reasons NOT to relay mail thru your ISP: 1) They can then censor your outgoing email. Or edit it. Or add their own little marketing info to it. Or drop all the attachments you are sending (for legit reasons which are NONE of their business). 2) They can archive and view your outgoing email more easily (sure, who cares? but, perhaps they have other clients that are your competitors? Perhaps they wish to build a db of email addresses to sell that will include your customers (and since they know that also, they can easily forge it as being from you). If nothing else, this then includes your ISP in the your backup and archive plans for legal purposes. If they are archiving, then it is subject to subpoena -- whether for criminal case or for civil case and their entire operation can get drug into such a case. What ISP in their right mind would open themselves up to such a thing? Think sexual harrassment and EEO complaints for examples of easily brought cases that can involve huge amounts of work to simply respond. And, with the possibility of #1, a sexual harrassment case via email would involve the ISP, as they would have to "prove" also that they did not forge offending emails (if used as a defense by the originating company, esp if they keep logs that would "prove" such a thing). 3) It makes surveillance requests easier for the ISP to comply with, as no extra software need be installed. Not an issue if you "are doing nothing wrong", of course. Of course, perhaps this is the real reason the AOL contigent is anxious to have all email go thru a big ISP and no independent mail servers. Most likely, the ISP that is relaying any mail becomes subject to conspiracy charges, so then "cooperates" by opening up archives to mail or copies all mail, without more stringent warrants being required. You may be thinking, we don't do anything illegal, so who cares? Start thinking of local govts that bring criminal child porn charges (a mayor in TN is being charged with receiving somewhere around 6 emails over three years that contained child porn pictures -- he claims they were spam porn, but the local govt is proceeding). Again, if the ISP is relaying such pictures (and grandma's pics of the grandkids in the tub has been ruled porn in some jurisdictions), they are then "involved". The main danger in this is that what is considered a reasonable amount of privacy is being rapidly eroded as, is the concept of what requires a warrant for a search. Even if you are not involved in anything that would be considered illegal, you should be concerned about this. No doubt there are many other reasons. Personally, #1 is the biggie. At least if my mail server sends directly, I know the email went thru. Were I a big ISP, I would worry about #2, #3, someone accidentally setting their mail server as an open relay (which would get ME listed in spamcop and then prevent mail being sent from all my other customers as well, which could then get me involved in some lawsuit or at least cost me a lot of support time) and the increased load of handling everyone elses mail, which would mean more costs for me. Of course, if I were instead an enforcer or prosecutor of the law, having all email only go thru very large, easily located and threatened ISP's would make my job much easier. And, yes, it could eliminate all the kiddie porn out there, in one country (which would make zero dent in the overall total, as the offenders would relocate). Perhaps all those ISP's should also be forced to receive all mail and filter it before being sent on as well? The next step? In addition to kiddie porn, add in all "illegal activities": information on getting prescriptions from Canada, certain methods of abortion, all porn (since it might pass thru PA or the bible belt), using hemp as a fiber or the value of the omega 3 content in the seeds, any medical reference to marijuana, any referral to a mosque (add in any other such religious or racial content that you can think of that might be linked to terrorism) and so on. K --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus] To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
