UniBlab ran up a $500 LD bill using my calling card. The little darling. ---- http://www.securityfocus.com/news/172 # # Spam war gags Gilmore # # Verio cuts off EFF co-founder John Gilmore over open mail server. # By Kevin Poulsen March 15, 2001 5:19 PM PT # # Aggressive anti-spam measures by Dallas-based ISP Verio have # stripped some of the Internet's digerati of the ability to send # email, and EFF co-founder John Gilmore is calling it censorship. # # Gilmore's home network includes what anti-spam crusaders call # an "open relay" -- a mail server that accepts and forwards email # from anyone. For decades, the practice was considered central # to good network citizenship. But in recent years, spammers have # begun hijacking open relays to multiply, sometimes a thousand # fold, the number of junk messages they can send at once. # # That abuse sparked a campaign by anti-spam activists to close # the open relays, a campaign that Gilmore, an entrepreneur, # electronic civil libertarian, and co-founder of the Electronic # Frontier Foundation (EFF), has little use for. # # "It reminds me of the X-ray machines they have in airports and # the security checks they put people through," says Gilmore. "It # doesn't actually solve the problem, it just infringes on the # rights of the innocent." # # Even as commercial ISPs began tightening down their mail servers # -- rejecting outgoing mail from non-subscribers, and forcing # subscribers to electronically prove their identity before sending # mail -- Gilmore kept his own mail server open to the world, a # service he says his friends have come to rely on. # # "Part of the reason my friends are using my machine is their # own ISPs' anti-spam measures prevent them from sending email # as they move around in the world," says Gilmore. "If one user # connects to my machine from an unknown address and sends a # message, my machine forwards it on. It's happy to. That could # be John Perry Barlow sending email from Africa to his girlfriend." # # Gilmore says he shuts down spammers when he detects them, but # acknowledges that some junk mail gets through his system. Late # last month, one such spam message -- from a would-be entrepreneur # offering professional spamming services to the public -- resulted # in a complaint to Gilmore's ISP, Verio, from an anti-spam group. # # Verio's sweeping acceptable-use policy prohibits open relays. # When Gilmore refused to put fetters on his mail server, the # company's security department slapped a filter on Gilmore's T1 # net connection Wednesday, blocking outgoing email from his # network. # # A Verio spokesperson did not return a telephone call Thursday. # Verio security team leader Darren Grabowski declined to comment. # "What we do is between us and our customer," said Grabowski. # # Anti-spam pressure Gilmore believes anti-spam efforts have gone # too far, and impact the rights of innocent people. "Verio is # filtering me because they were pressured by a pressure group, # and they don't have enough intelligence to stand up against that # pressure." # # But the head of the anti-spam business that forwarded the # complaint to Verio last month says the ISP did the right thing. # # "It's been a very long time since open relays were considered # acceptable on the net," says Julian Haight, owner of SpamCop.net. # "On today's Internet, things have changed considerably." # # SpamCop.net lets netizens easily and automatically track and # report spammers and open relays, and maintains a blacklist of # network addresses the company considers spam-friendly. Haight # acknowledges the influence his organization, and other anti-spam # efforts, can exert on an ISP, but he says no one has a right # to operate a service that lends a hand to spammers. # # "Freedom of speech is not 100 percent," says Haight. "You're # not allowed to come into my home to preach to me... Open servers # are responsible for making copies of unsolicited commercial emails # and sending it to people who don't want it." # # Gilmore argues that by making decisions about what to allow or # disallow over their network, ISPs risk losing the common carrier # status that protects them from legal liability for their # customer's actions. # # "Ultimately, they should be a pipe. They shouldn't care what # content goes through. For them to say, well, we'll send your # IP packets... except when you send this particular type of IP # packet, it takes them out of the realm of a common carrier," # says Gilmore. "That puts the entire Internet in jeopardy." 6/13/2000 Hannity & Colmbes, Representive Dan Burton, giving his URL to where he put a report critical of Clinton on the WWW: "It's at indiana.com" [confers with someone off-screen] "It's at indiana.gov.com"
