SpamCop To Be Sold To IronPort?

Iphtashu Fitz writes "InfoWorld is reporting that SpamCop is about to be sold to IronPort Systems for an undisclosed amount of money. According to the InfoWorld article, the announcement will be made on Nov. 25, and will include IronPort investing $1 million in SpamCop to keep the service up and running. IronPort apparently makes use of the SpamCop DNS blocklist in their spam filtering products and this move is seen as a way to help support SpamCop and formalize their relationship. IronPort is reported as stating that the SpamCop blocklist data will remain freely available to the public."

Comments

I use SpamCop for e-mail...

[rborek]

... and it's generally pretty well filtered.

However, I would never use the SpamCop blacklist for completely blocking e-mail - only filtering. Why? Any one "possible spam" message processed through its system lands the server on the blacklist - which means one user that sends out a spam message (or even a message that someone thinks is spam or unwanted) that is then processed as spam through SpamCop puts the mail server onto the blacklist. The server will not be removed for a minimum of 24 hours.

This means that systems that are active against thwarting spammers can still end up on the blacklist for 24 hours (or longer - you can report e-mail for up to 3 days after it was sent).

Undisclosed

[Lehk228]

Will the Deal for an undisclosed amount of money be finalized in the undisclosed location that The Vice President was kept in?

This sounds like a very good thing, IronPort will benifit by being able to tightly integrate SpamCop into hardware and SpamCop will become better due to less downtime due to DDoS attacks

Re:Spamcop's list of websites

[Dwonis]

I got into a 'spam war' with one of my roommates back in college, and with that Spamcop list I was able to render his email account COMPLETELY useless within a couple of hours (If you're reading this, sorry 'bout that Brian... )

Please try to remember that the end-recipient of spam is not the only one who is hurt by spam.

Here's the real test...

[Dave21212]

...of how effective SpamCop is and how much I trust their system.

Please notice (above) that I use my spamcop.net addy here at /. with *no obsfuscication* needed. I love it. (And it helps identify a few spams that require manual handling = trapped and reported)

It's the users that make SC what it is. If IronPort ever goes to the Dark Side, the users will defect and there will be no SC any more ! I trust also that they understand this and that this is a happy day for the SC folks.

Good, but....

[Cheeze]

...I think they should have held out for someone like AOL. Picture this: Aol buys spamcop and integrates it into their network. They go, if you don't use our blacklist by middle of next year, you will no longer be able to send us e-mail. That gives a deadline to all of the jokers that are running open relays to get their software configured up or they will not be able to send mail to AOL or anyone else doing business with AOL. That could be a huge self-regulating spam blocker.

On a side note, I wonder what will happen to the donated mirror servers. If SpamCop gets funding, are they going to still keep using the freebie public mirror servers or are they going to build their own and start paying for colo space? If they are going to build their own and pay for colo space, that will eat in to that $1Mil pretty fast.

Re:Hrm... Sounds Fishy...

[scrytch]

I mean, they've got one division dedicated to optimizing the throughput of their hardware to deliver the maximum spam/sec

I'm confused -- should there be a ban on efficient mail gateways or something? Spammers don't have the budget for Ironport boxen. They especially won't have the budget to pay for an Ironport bond, because every single complaint will cost them money.