> Just to make clear here, in the course of lauding AOL for not bombing
> third-parties, keep in mind that this is just a consequence of
> *their*own* non-compliant email handling choice, and is _not_ inherent in
> "good email handling".
Sigh. There's nothing whatsoever non-compliant about accepting mail and
bouncing it later if it's not deliverable. The RFCs have always said
that's legitimate, lots of mail systems other than AOL's do so, and there
are quite sensible reasons to do so having nothing to do with spam.
Also, a moment's thought would reveal that bouncing with a 550 would
mailbomb third parties just as thoroughly as sending out the bounces
later, except that the bounces would come from the open relays rather than
from AOL. I can't see why you think that would be an improvement.
Regards,
John Levine, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner
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