On 4 Feb 1999, Lorens Kockum wrote:
> On the qmail list [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> >
> >Oh, tosh. I've got a server listed on those lists - has been for close
> >to a year. It runs mail lists, [...]
>
> And I suppose that you don't care that your server is probably
> being used to send spam all over the world ?
Actually, the server is no longer an open relay. Getting it taken off
the blocking lists is more trouble than it's worth, as there aren't
enough sites using them to matter. When it was open, I dealt with it
with the same kinds of tools as the people who are talking about doing
it here are doing.
The only relation between technical solutions and business models is
that the first enables the second. In spite of what the Politically
Correct SMTP Server Police want you to believe, open relays are a
perfectly valid technical solution, and enable some usefull business
models. Since the internet is no longer a nice neighborhood, you need
*other* technical solutions to block spammers. Those exist, and giving
people trying to find them a blanket "don't do that" is *at best*
pointless, and may actually do harm.
Personally, I favor more aggressive solutions. For instance, if
someone obviously has no problems with putting email addresses on mail
lists without the owners permission, putting a few of theirs on a
news-answers feed seems justified.
<mike
