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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.

3 of 452 comments (clear)

  1. 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. 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?