Look folks, I don't like spam or porn either. If I had my way it would be eliminated, but we don't have it our way. You have the absolute right to block anything that "you" don't want to read, receive, etc. The problem is that when you make that decision for someone else, you deny them the choice, or right, to make that decision for themselves. The easiest description is just plain censorship.
You can block any mail you want. I just don't want the unaware to believe these blocking products are without liability. I am quite aware of much of the legislation, and litigation on this subject, and to be perfectly honest it just doesn't look good for censorship. Our society demands some sort of censorship on many levels, but when the courts hear these cases they find on the side of free speech more often than not. If your attorney has advised you that any AUP, or other agreement between you and your customer will protect you from such litigation then you should follow that advice. I personally don't believe that any civil agreement can alienate one from their rights. No agreement can keep someone from filing suit against you, and then it's just a matter of big bucks either way. I don't like spam. I don't like porn. I don't like the bandwidth it steals. I don't like many things. I also don't think that you, or anyone else, has the right (regardless of civil agreement) to decide what I am allowed to read. All I want you to do is think about it. Several of the well known blacklists fold under attack. There's a reason for that. The first time I send an innocent message to someone with a subject line that just happens to be on someone's list, and my message is discarded as spam, I assure you that if I pursued the matter you would lose. It wouldn't be the guy who put the list together, but you that would pay. Please at least seriously think about the liability you incur by blocking messages. If you offer a service "as-is" then it better be "as-is". If you filter then that service is not "as-is". You have modified and implied a warranty. I'm not for spam, I'm not for porn, but some of these guys reading this forum and getting the idea it's OK to censor and there's no liability involved are going to get hurt. If you're doing this for your own private use then you have nothing to worry about, but if you are reselling, or even giving it away for free then you better investigate the entire problem before you find out the hard way. You can flame me all you want... I really don't care, but I do care if some innocent person here loses their life savings over inaccurate information here. -Joe ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Schreiner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 6:20 PM Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] ORBZ shut down > This is what gets me on this entire blocking issue and the "Joe the > Lawyer" positions... > > We support and maintain several online "family-oriented" and religious > oriented portal communities and their companion e-mail services. We > have all the appropriate legal Usage Agreements, Policies, etc. They > basically state if something goes wrong it is not our fault, usage of > services is "AS-IS", and if you don't like, then don't use our services, > or if we don't like you - we will terminate your usage with us > exercising our right to do so. So I am pretty sure our lawyers have us > well covered regarding a law suit that we block SPAM? > > But what really gets to me from the "Joe the Lawyer" guys, is that a > significant number of the Spam's we block are from PORN outfits targeted > to our innocent and very often young community members. I say the hell > to the free speech Spammer guys that are wanting to send my customers, > clients, and community members PORN solicitations. I would rather defend > myself to the Judge trying to protect the proliferation of PORN to > children, than defend myself from blocking somebody's supposed right to > send unsolicited e-mail. > > Ahh... my 2 cents anyway. I just feel no one has the right to send me > crap I did not ask for, especially PORN solicitations into my children's > e-mail box. Perhaps I am wrong legally as it relates to free rights and > e-mail solicitations, but the PORN solicitation alone is enough to keep > me fighting for my rights to block SPAM. > > Anyone know of a good legal resource on this issue and where I can > reference for comparison some Usage Agreements and online Policies that > have held up against these morons out there? I would like to have our > lawyer's double check our usage agreements and policies on Spam > filtering. Thanks. > > Don S. > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of R. Scott Perry > Sent: Thursday, March 21, 2002 4:50 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [IMail Forum] ORBZ shut down > > > >That should be a major wake up call for any of you blocking messages! > > Another interesting point where "Joe the lawyer"'s argument backfires: > > Blacklisting could actually help PREVENT a similar lawsuit! Anyone who > is > adding the town of Battle Creek, Michigan (and other buggy mail servers) > to > their blacklists will minimize mail to these mail servers, which will in > > turn minimize the chances that they will get sent to jail for sending > mail > to those servers. > > -Scott > --- > Declude: Anti-virus, Anti-spam and Anti-hijacking solutions for > IMail. http://www.declude.com > > --- > [This E-mail was scanned for viruses by Declude Virus > (http://www.declude.com)] > > > Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > to be removed from this list. > > An Archive of this list is available at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > > Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked > questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > ---------- > [This e-mail scanned by CompBiz for Viruses. http://www.CompBiz.Net] > > > > Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > to be removed from this list. > > An Archive of this list is available at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > > Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked > questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html to be removed from this list. An Archive of this list is available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Please visit the Knowledge Base for answers to frequently asked questions: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
