Slashdot Mirror
MAPS Sued Again
A reader writes: "
Following the third lawsuit against it in as many months, and in response to unsolicited donations having been "pouring in" (their words), MAPS yesterday announced that they've set up a MAPS Legal Defense Fund. Being as the prior two parties settled their differences with MAPS before the matters actually got to trial, maybe this will be the one MAPS says they've been waiting for in order to establish the legal righteousness of their position. Or not."
Moderators, please moderate this up. I've seen a couple of posts that have confused this issue. I think it is important to know the difference.
Robert Graham
CTO/Network ICE
PS: It appears that Black Ice Software isn't using our BlackICE product, which of course would warn them that their e-mail servers are forwarding spam :-)
the way they blackhole anyone who runs an open SMTP server, even if it's not being used for spamming
... Open relays may be entered immediately onto the RBL to stop spam-in-progress"
I think you have them confused with ORBS.
From the MAPS site:
"the most common reason for a host or network being in the MAPS RBL is that it was used by a spammer as a mail relay
MAPS does not scan for open relays, so how do they know that a relay is open unless a spammer uses it?
Contrary to your belief, it's _HARD_ to get into the MAPS RBL - you have to screw up and refuse to fix it; it's also very easy to get off the RBL - fix your relay, and notify them.
You should visit the MAPS page at maps.vix.com for more information.
Really, MAPS is not ORBS.
The question is, would lawsuits like this happen if MAPS was hosted in a foreign country? (i'm not sure about the current location)
-Stskeeps, http://unrealircd.com
- http://www.ecst.csuchico. edu
/~atman/spam/adblock.shtml: This site provides you with a hosts file which maps dozens of web ad banner graphic sites to 127.0.0.1. The net affect is that many banner ads won't load at all, and instead will show up in your browser as broken images. This really speeds up the loading of web pages, especially if you're on a modem connection.
- http://spamcop.net/: SpamCop is a great site! For free, it lets you paste a spam email into its form, and then it analyzes the spam, decides who the appropriate ISP's are to complain to, and sends those people a detailed complaint with all the info they need to find and shut down whoever violated their terms-of-service. It also keeps stats on the worst spam offenders, and makes this information available to ORBS. I swear by it, and it's immensely gratifying when I (frequently!) get email from an ISP thanking me for my help and letting me know that the offending account has been terminated.
- http://www.spambouncer.org/: I haven't used SpamBouncer myself yet, but it's a procmail-based way to screen spam out of your mailbox. I've heard it's good.
Another recommendation: If your email client loads images automatically in HTML email, turn that option off! Some spam will put your email address in the URL's of the images it loads, so that just by opening the message (and viewing the images) the spammer will know you saw their message.(I got one spam recently that actually ha a return receipt attached; it was a pyramid scheme and Eudora beeped and told me 'The sender has requested notification that you read this email.' What gall!)
(set flamers on low, please)
(I am not a Lawyer nor do I play one on TV)
MAPS is likening itself, correctly in my opinion, to a Reviewer. The same as one voluntarily buys a copy of /localpaper/ and then reads the reviews, deciding whether or not the Reviewer sounds reasonable, MAPS is voluntary and no one is bound to follow their opinion.
However Reviewers have been successfully sued in the past. One cannot simply publish "It stinks!" (or "It's spam!") without having some sort of objective basis. Courts can & have walked this fine line between free speech and defamation.
Thus the question can move from "Does MAPS have a right to do this?" to "Is MAPS being fair in it's labelling?". This is where the MAPS folks might run into difficulty defending to the Court how they determine what is "spam" (or "Unsolicited-Commercial-Email") and what is not.
If (and this is a big "If") Network Ice can demonstrate that MAPS could be inaccurately labelling some sites as spam sites, specifically Network Ice, then MAPS could have problems.
-- Michael
ps MAPS is based in California, USA & Network Ice is from New Hampshire, USA.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
It's completely voluntary for a sysadmin to set their system up to use MAPS; nobody is forcing it down anyone's throat. This is basic freedom of choice.
..or corporations..)
In regard to the Consumer Reports comparison:
If CR finds that a particular Ford vehicle is less comfortable to drive than a comparable Chevrolet model, by polling test drivers or the general public, it's not illegal for them to report this. I don't see CR bring sued. It's also completely voluntary to buy and/or read Consumer Reports. Nobody is forcing it upon you.
The simple fact that MAPS is so popular, and being used by so many people, should also speak volumes. I haven't heard (but this doesn't mean that there aren't) of anyone who *uses* the service complaining about it... it's just the companies who wind up on the RBL who complain.
Don't they realize that if they changed the way they treated the Internet in regard to e-mail that they wouldn't stay on the list, and if they had the proper method of using e-mail systems they wouldn't have been on the list in the first place?
I think that MAPS is akin to your local public utilities commission or similar, in that they help a great deal in keeping e-mail systems in-check. (And they're not as arrogant as the ORBS people, but that's a whole different discussion.)
It's also very simple to get off the list.. I know, as I have had to get several clients off it lately. (Amazing how Exchange sets up as an open relay out of the box.)
People need to grow a clue.
--
Don't trust your Government. (Update:
*kerchunk* *beep* "...Operator."
My opinion is this:
1. I own the bandwidth
2. I own the server that the mail software runs on.
3. I have the right to do most any legal thing with my own network. Such as firewalling all of AOL's IP addresses. If they don't like it, tough.
4. I chose freely to give MAPS the authority to say who gets blocked. Since I own my mail server, it's within my rights to delegate that authority.
I don't see what the big deal is.
Matt
Don't take life so seriously; it isn't permanent.
Does e-mail have "rights"? Does it have the right to be delivered? Do my words have the right to be heard? Most importantly, do I have the right to ignore others, or must I listen to their free speech? Not to shut them up, just to not listen to them...
/. and the moderators. After all, if I troll/offtopic/flamebait/hot grits myself and everyone else here to death, eventually I might have such negative karma that I'm on a blacklist and all my posts go to -1 automatically. Hey, I'm just a legitimate poster! And now no one gets to hear me rant about natalie portman or whatever unless they opt-in -- after all, default reading is at a threshold of 0.
If MAPS loses, then maybe the Slashdot trolls will move forward with lawsuits agains
Maybe the judge should rule that Outlook, Eudora, Netscape and every other e-mail client that can filter out junk mail disable that feature, and even require people to read all their junk e-mail in full
Because doesn't everyone, especially corporations and people with lots of money, have the right to force others to listen?
-----------
-----------
If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, forget 'em, because man, they're gone. -- Jack