[I sent this yesterday morning, but I haven't seen it so I'm resending it.]
Our list was alerted to remarq's tactics in late February when one of
our s*bscribers found a new message board on remarq that delivered
the same messages she was getting from our list.
What we found was: whenever anyone s*bscribes to remarq's "message
board" for our list, their system sends a s*bscribe command to our
list. All of the messages are archived from the moment the first
remarq s*bscription comes through and they maintain a s*bscriber list
gleaned from the posts.
From the moment we realized what was happening we locked down our
list, changing the config files to require admin approval of
s*bscribe requests so that we could prevent remarq from receiving any
more posts.
My wife sent a list of complaints to remarq's support staff and they
removed the archives and our mailing list from their site within 24 -
36 hours.
Once we were off remarq's site, we went back to normal operations.
Tim Wentz
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Here's what was sent to remarq.
>Your company has chosen to advertise and make available to your
>subscribers the Unschooling List. While I appreciate the additional
>publicity for my list, you should be aware that you are violating
>several of the Unschooling Lists written policies by doing so. Please
>discontinue this practice immediately by removing all archives from any
>records you may have, destroying the list of names and addresses of
>subscribers you have collected and removing our name from your boards.
>
>My list of complaints to date is as follows:
>
>remarq has chosen to archive our list against our written policy, and
>make it available and even cross reference my list with many other
>lists. We have a strong 'no archives' policy in place and have for 5
>years. This is completely and totally unacceptable. Allowing our
>illegal collected archives and cross posting them to subscribers of
>other lists is not only a massive invasion of privacy - but also
>highly illegal as we have young children disccussing personal matters
>here and you are not only allowing access by the general public but
>displaying their private e-mail addresses too.
>
>remarq jeopardizes our privacy by making a list of all active list
>members available to anyone who joins the list, including
>spammers who may join for 5 minutes and then leave This violate
>written policy in my Welcome Message and in my own config files.
>
>remarq subscribers have access to other people's private ADMIN
>reminders, messages, even unsubscribed people's requests to be
>subscribed! I can't privately communicate or scold one remarq
>subscriber without all the others knowing.
>
>remarq does not allow me to communicate with a person wanting to join
>our community until after they are allowed in. I, as a list
>owner, need to be able to be sure all applicants are aware of our
>purposeand our rules. As we have children on our list, their security
>and privacy are of the utmost imporatnce to me.
>
>remarq s*ubscribers don't get the lists Welcome Message when they join,
>so they are unaware of our posting guidellines.
>
>remarq s*ubscribers seem to have between 5-10% of their daily mail
>bounced back to me as undeliverable (*very* poor service!)
>
>remarq didn't have the common courtesy to ask the list owners about our
>being included in their 'service' - or to disclose their policies,
>they just snatched us up Rather than being polite and letting a list
>'opt-in' you are insisting that a list 'opt-out' after the damage to
>privacy has already been done.
>
>remarq's privacy disclosure statement basically says you shouldn't
>expect privacy on the internet and that it isn't their problem to
>provide it. Well sirs, I assure you we had at least some privacy before
>you began archiving and cross posting my list in a public forum.
>
>
>I have required all new subscriptions to be approved, and unsubbed all
>existing remarq subscribers. Of course, as they have not unsubbed from
>remarq, they still have unlimited access to not only the illegally
>collected UL archives, but also the illegally collected address book.
>
>Again, I am requesting that all posts, all records and all mention of
>the Unschooling List please be immediately removed from your site and
>all affiliated sites.
>
>I expect written confirmation of my request by the close of business
>Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2000.
