There are really three completely separate issues here, although our friends
at Topica and Liszt seem to treat them interchangeably.
ISSUE #1 - PUBLIC LIST DIRECTORIES
==================================
Topica and Liszt claim (and most list admins would agree) that they're
entitled to compile directories of publicly accessible mailing lists,
without being considered rude or evil. If in the course of doing this they
"harvest" previous directories published others, thereby falling afoul of
someone's compilation copyright and getting the lawyers interested, that's
their problem, but it's no skin off the nose of your average list manager.
ISSUE #2 - SPAMMING LISTOWNERS
==============================
They also seem to think they have the right to conduct unsolicited bulk
emailings to the registered owners of the lists they find, alerting them to
the joys of yet-another list service, inviting them to opt in or out of
yet-another directory, and so forth. They are DEAD WRONG about this, and
their persistence in doing it anyway (with or without self-serving essays
here) makes them SPAMMERS. Note that it does not matter whether the CONTENT
of the spam refers to the non-evil directory from Issue #1; it would still
be spam if it were about a bake sale for the children's choir. Therefore it
will not wash for Topica and Liszt to respond to "you are spamming, it is
wrong, stop it!" messages by saying "What's so bad about a directory of
lists?..." Nope-nope-nope. If they persist in spamming, they will be
listed with the abuse organizations and find themselves subject to anti-spam
measures, which can take months to clear away even after complete reform.
That's not a threat, just a statement of the way the Net works and a
heads-up while they still have the chance.
ISSUE #3 - UNSOLICITED ARCHIVING
================================
This is another area where they could really get their you-know-what caught
in the wringer, but they seem to know it already. I would encourage
listowners to assert a COMPILATION COPYRIGHT on the contents of their lists,
both in the materials sent to new members and in the INFO and FAQ files, and
in a once-per-month administrivia reminder. List hosting services do not
have the right to archive your list without your permission, but some of
them seem to be doing it anyway, either by permitting individual list
MEMBERS to authorize archiving (a permission that is not theirs to give) or
by creating bogus "members" who join lists using mail aliases that feed the
archiver. These bogus aliases are driven by scripts that know how to
respond to a Confirm message. (I would also encourage changing your
confirmation scheme if you have that much access to your list software.)
I am not "against" Liszt or Topica or Egroups or the other free market list
resources - I think they're an important component of the future of email
forums. Precisely BECAUSE they are important, it's vital that they do it
right, and not poison the well by misbehaving and giving their business a
bad name.
