James, I feel it is important to reply to your reasoned article with an equal response. Mr. Fowler wrote:
[Fowler, James] Bob, Yes you do have the right to e-mail anyone you want. I can refuse e-mail from anyone I want. This is the same for the US postal service. If I choose not to accept e-mail from you, then you don't get a real say in the matter. The RBL is a voluntary list. i.e. your network is used for Spam, one can not get off of your Spam list, they document what they have done, then add your address to the RBL. it is punishment for you not respecting the rights and requests of others not to send Spam, so we (RBL Users) have a right not to accept Spam. This is NOT envelope steaming, this is looking at the address from who it was sent from and then stopping the e-mail from going further.
It is MY company's network, My company's storage system, My company's connection, My company's money paid for all of this. My company CAN choose who we want to use our services.
Your attitude, "Welcome to the digital age. Here is 2000 pieces of Spam for you. Thanks for the use of your bandwidth and storage." This is not right. It would be like someone going to your house, walking in, going to you fridge, getting a drink, and using your phone and watching your TV, without your permission. Is this what you really want? This list is a group of people who have wasted too many hours in trying to get people like you to listen and please stop the spamming, but it takes a discussion / Flame mail to do this. Why?
Mail is mail is mail in my opinion. And what you do on a *private* server is your own business. Once that server opens for general public usage the obligation is to simply deliver the god-damned mail. Not snif or steam or read the addresses to see if they are kosher. We have our rights and freedoms in a civil society. One day they will be integrated into our laws and various constitutions. Until then I guess Public ISPs will continue to get away with abuses. In my opinion all this RBL nonsense is vastly more destructive in the long term than a few ad e-mails. You may agree to disagree. That too is your right. However you still may not block, manipulate or deny any mail directed at me. *UNLESS* I explicitly give you that permission. Otherwise - buzz of boys. You're treading on dangerous ground. Bob Allisat Free Community Network _ bob@fcn.net . http://fcn.net http://fcn.net/allisat _ http://fcn.net/draft