Tuesday, Tuesday, December 04, 2001, 5:06:57 PM, Spy OpenSRS Mail wrote: > Dave, guys... :) we are not an ISP, we are a web host. However like I said, > people can make choices. Our servers are not a democracy. Our rules, like > or leave it. And the rules can change any time I want them to. King Lars. > Has a nice ring. <laugh>
Not really, though, at least not in the US. End users, particularly in the area of communications like email, have rights that survive contracts and terms of service. It's a real grey area, one I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of should my filtering prevent an important business communication from getting to or from one of my users, who subsequently suffers a loss and blames me. > BTW, someone mentioned lawsuit. Where do you figure? If we block > spamregistrar.com from our hosted customers (e-mail host and vhost with > e-mail) then they are the only ones we are blocking spam to. Not our > umpteen thousands of registrants. > You know, this conversation is stupid. How many people here love to stir up > crap just for the sake of it? Can we talk about something constructive on > occasion? :) I just think that ISPs do filtering for their customers is wrong. You can't do it in a truly informed manner, and it almost always involves blocking more than just actual spam. Place the tools in the customers' hands, that also places the responsibility and liability in their hands. I've found that using an extensible smtp server (Exim under linux) and a mysql database with a php front end, I can allow users to block email from particular email addresses and entire domains, and with just a little more work I could offer IP and IP block filtering as well. (Exim can also use rbl-like orbs-like checks, and rather than blocking them, tag them with a header that identifies it, and the users can filter based on that tag). Exception lists would also be easy enough to do, as would "key word" subject filtering. You will note that I almost always come out on the side of the users/registrants rights. I know you meant it humorously, and don't think I'm being humorless :) but it is that "Sysadmin as King of the Network" attitude that makes me cringe. As a provider of services to to end users/the public, you have a responsibility to them. I see that overlooked a lot these days, and I'm not singling you out for that, or saying that you are one of those that don't agree with that. I know this is a single issue type thing that we disagree on. -- Best regards, William X Walsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- Webcertificates.info SSL Certificates for resellers from $49ea
