Bob, let me explain a couple of things to you that you seem to not grasp! 1. As the owner of an ISP, the equipment is mine, the network connections are mine, and the right of data to pass through that equipment is mine to control. Its called private property. 2. As a business I have the authority to tell my employee's what they can and can't do AT WORK. For example, I can say that we do not allow the reading of Playboy magazines on company time or property. This is perfectly legal. Yes I am censoring my employee from reading a publication. 3. If the USG was telling us internet providers to block or filter email that contained the word BOBO, then that would (or could) be considered a violation of certain freedoms. The RBL is not a government agency. Read the FAQ 4. The MAPS RBL project is an OPT-IN program. Mail server operators that wish to make use of those services do so of their own free will. 5. How they communicate that to their users (customers) is completely a private matter between them and their users (customers). 6. We tell all of our customers that we subscribe to the MAPS RBL project and as such mail from certain sites may be blocked. Our customers *love* this feature and it is part of the reason the select us as a provider. In closing Mr. Allisat, your statements that the MAPS RBL project is intercepting private Email and is manipulating the free flow of email is false. Though is sounds true to those that lack clue, it is false. The statement that a "technician" is making the decision is also patently false. If you took the time to properly research the FAQ's, the site, etc. you would know that an officer of the company must sign a document in order to use the service, that is to receive a feed. In addition for those that are passively using the service (via DNS lookups) I am quite sure they have the approval of management. If they don't and management doesn't support the choice, then it would be reversed. What we are protecting, and what is our right to protect, is theft of service. jmbrown@ihighway.net Copyright 1998 by John M. Brown All rights reserved. This message may only be referenced or duplicated in its entirety. Sub parts are a violation of this limited use statement. At 01:55 AM 2/7/36 -0500, you wrote:
Derek writes:
There are plenty of people, who are HAPPY to have Paul's RBL (I recently subscribed last night finally, thank you Paul!) around to lighten the workloads of our servers, and to lessen the mailspools of our customers.
The simple point is you or any other technician has no ability or right to imagine themselves representing or in any way inter- fering with their customers mail. You are acting as if you have any right to intercept any private e-mail. You have no such right. In manipulating the free flow of electronic mail you are infringing with fundamentaly human rigts and freedoms.
Bob Allisat
Free Community Network _ bob@fcn.net . http://fcn.net