[From the main page, as of Friday, 21-Nov-2003 12:43:47 PST] SpamCop Purchased (a message from the founder, Julian Haight)
After careful consideration and negotiation, earlier this year, I decided to sell SpamCop to IronPort Systems, producers of fast mail servers and the spam-tracking system, Senderbase. I am pleased with the terms of the deal, in no small part because I feel the people at IronPort are going to support my goals, helping me protect and nurture SpamCop. We all agree that SpamCop is valuable and needs proper care and feeding. I plan to continue as the driving force behind the "product direction." IronPort is freeing me from other tasks so that I can focus on what's important. Users should not expect any radical changes - that's worth saying twice - nothing will be changing as a result of this move! I have discussed selling SpamCop with various people at various times, but other offers have always fallen short. Ironically, I found IronPort's offer interesting first because it made sense from their point of view: I could understand easily what was in it for them, and their interest in SpamCop did not conflict with my own. They are basing their product's spam-filtering feature, in part, on the data provided by SpamCop. It's clear that they have a vested interest in the quality of that data. Those who are familliar with SpamCop know that I never have enough time to do all the things I'd like to do. I have been a one man show for far too long, and SpamCop has often suffered as a result. I don't think I'll ever have enough time. But the support I have already received from Ironport is helping immeasurably. For example, one of the first things I did was to hire Ellen. For those who don't know, I have always relied upon unpaid volunteers to help with the hundreds of emails we get every day. Don was my first paid employee, and Ellen is now the second. Ironport employees have also contributed, helping me with such things as system administration, accounting, and legal issues. In addition, Ironport has accepted the considerable cost of professional denial-of-service protection, both for SpamCop's site and their own systems. Although the purchase is officially being announced today, November 21, it was inked in June. It was not announced sooner for a variety of reasons, chief among them fortification of our electronic defenses. I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who has supported me in the past, financially, with your time and with servers, bandwidth, free advice, etc. I welcome Ironport as the newest and most significant benefactor of our efforts to STOP SPAM! I will be making myself available in the main spamcop news group ( NNTP | Email | Archive | WebTV ) to talk about this decision and to address any questions or concerns. Please do not flame those who post criticism. Allow me to address my critics in a civil and respectful environment. ------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe please go to http://www.sambar.ch/list/
