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Open Relays, Free Speech, and Virus Propagation

Posted by michael on from the now-boarding-at-port-25 dept.

sirsnork writes: "There is a story about John Gilmore running an open relay that is being used by a virus to propagate running over at Newsbytes. His defence? He wants his friends to be able to send email through his server from whereever they are. You'd think he'd know better." Gilmore has been skirmishing with Verio for some time over his open mail relay. Is it a good thing because it promotes the free flow of information? Is it bad for promoting the free flow of spam? Do the ethics change because someone writes a virus that uses the server to propagate? Interesting questions.

8 of 452 comments (clear)

  1. What's his IP address? by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'll add his domain to my blacklist.

    I suppose he leaves his front door unlocked too so his friends can watch cable whenever they like?

  2. Free flow. by saintlupus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it a good thing because it promotes the free flow of information?

    Information wants to be free, but my mail client does not want to be chock-full of herbal pot alternative spam.

    If this were still the 'net of the pre-WWW days, I would see the point of running an open relay for friends. It's not, though. The vultures are here. And they really want to sell penis enlargers.

    --saint

    1. Re:Free flow. by DataPath · · Score: 4, Funny

      I have to ashk you about the penish mightier.

      Gushy it up however you like, trebek, the question is does it work?

      --
      Inconceivable!
    2. Re:Free flow. by CoolVibe · · Score: 3, Funny
      Saw this in someone's .sig:

      Steph: "Don't these people realize that if you outlaw SPAM, only CRIMINALS will have spam?"
      Piotr; "Sounds good to me...."
      Steph: "Okay wait, that didn't come out right..."

      :)

  3. What to do about it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    What to do about it

    Write, email, fax, or phone to Darren Grabowski of "Verio Security". Tell him that punishing innocents if you can't find the guilty is not the right way to run a network. Please send me a copy at , and also send a copy to EFF at .

    So should I use my real email address...no I think I'll use bill@microsoft.com and relay 100000 copies through your open mailserver. Cool huh!

  4. What's that sound? by Hard_Code · · Score: 5, Funny

    A herd of anonymous cowards and email harvesters whooshing to the open relay...

    --

    It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
  5. Re:It's bad. by Grab · · Score: 3, Funny

    SlashDot Pedants' Dictionary: "postamster" not recognised. Suggested replacement: "post hamster".

    Grab.

  6. Re:It's bad. by operagost · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, I think the original poster confused port 25 with port 110. Notice the other cool services running that should have been firewalled. I'm thinking about sending him some ASCII pr0n via 515.

    --

    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.