On Tue, 7 May 2002, Margie Arbon wrote:
--On Tuesday, May 07, 2002 6:04 PM -0400 Andy Dills <andy@xecu.net> wrote:
<...> Now, MAPS has filed a lawsuit against a former employee. Why? Because he might interfere with their ability to make money by giving away something for free that they charge for!
<...>
Precisely what other course of action could MAPS take?
You could let him do whatever he wants with it. The premise of you charging for access to the various databases was based on a need to cover cost, not a desire to profit. Now you act with motivations specifically based on a desire to protect profit. In other words, you have no cred on this street corner. You have no moral high ground. You're just another microsft or network solutions complaining about how unfair it is, the injustice of the world! You used to be the vigilante force patrolling the net, looking to stop spam by any means neccessary. You did so because that was the what the net needed. Then you started to charge for it. Seems reasonable, and while it upset a lot of long-time contributors (you're making me pay for a service I helped build?), it made sense from the point of view that "Hey, we're losing our shirts here, we need money." So, now, instead of fighting spam for free, you're fighting a spam fighter, the legal bills of which are paid for with the revenues generated based on you selling the intellectual property contributed by many people! What other course of action could MAPS take? You could throw out the people making decisions with their over-stuffed pocketbooks and re-invent yourself.
So, you who subscribe to MAPS: When will you be cancelling your subscriptions? It's no longer about stopping spam with them, now it's about money. FWIW, the other blacklists out there are just as good. I particularly like njabl.org.
For those wishing to actually *read* the filings before passing judgement:
For those wishing to actually *think* about what MAPS is really doing here before passing judgement: http://www.chickenboner.com/lawsuit/ Andy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Andy Dills 301-682-9972 Xecunet, LLC www.xecu.net xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Dialup * Webhosting * E-Commerce * High-Speed Access