Copyrighted Haiku Delivers Spam Through Filters

An anonymous reader writes "Remember that antispam company that includes a copyrighted haiku (which I can't quote here due to copyright reasons...) in emails vouching for their nonspaminess and thus bypassing spamfilters? The idea is that a spammer using said haiku to get through spamfilters can be prosecuted under the more stringent copyright laws instead of the weaker antispam ones. Well it seems said haiku has lately been figuring in a large spam run trying to pitch the usual medical remedies for various unfortunate ailments. What do you think? Is it time to start filtering for haikus or will Habeas succeed in thwarting the spam attack?" We mentioned this brilliant anti-spam scheme last April.

Comments

screw the copyright - here are the haikus ;)

[Anonymous Coward]

Train of slick spam (a heller mail than mine), now corpus on third rail - Bill Bailey

art science and law forged together into one synchronicity - Justin S. Houk

Like oceans of wind Habeas SWE clears Email server jams. - Barbara Kane Pilliod

As Habeas shows that spam email can be banned with lawsuits at hand - Stanislaus Jaworski

Messages pile up. Unauthorized, unwanted. Now undelivered. - John H. Lee

Habeas striving to rid my inbox of spam. Hope it will succeed. - Steve Wilhelm

Hasty limerick My gift to all Habeas An honor for me. -Sandy Bumgarner

Habeas Web Page Elegant as your concept Navigating joy. -Sandy Bumgarner

Incorporeal Dear old friends send mail. As do incorporeal robot pretenders. -James Kobielus

Too much spam today Sender Warranted Email Spam-free tomorrow -Stacey Irvine

email said hello, email police jumped on it, now, no one writes me . . . . -Michael Siwinski

I get no email, any day that ends in y, fixed spam problem though . . . . -Michael Siwinski

I lost my baby, I lost my bathwater too, might be my filter? -Michael Siwinski

Awesome find today.. One expanded header full.. Hinted things to come! -Cindy Sue Causey

Habeas info.. In a header full of Shtuff.. Brought new hope at last! -Cindy Sue Causey

I built a new soul Using the remaining pieces Of my Habeas -Anthony Oertel

habeas makes herring out of yucky spam happy penguin -Philipp Droessler

spam free mail inbox clean like the first spring rain thanks to habeas -Philipp Droessler

unwanted porn ads and get rich quick nevermore thank you habeas -Philipp Droessler

Habeus have won once already

[Rogerborg]

Which would have taken any semi-literate reporter or editor ten second to find on their site. I guess that would have spoiled the illusion of a breaking story though.

Re:Habeus have won once already

[Rogerborg]

That's just dissembling. The article gives the impression that this is the first time this has happened (implicitely, by not mentioning anything between now and last April). Basic journalistic integrity means not ignoring relevant aspects of a story just because they happen to lessen the impact.

bayesian filters

[ddent]

I just checked through the mail I've received in the last while, and there is only one newsletter I am on using Habeas -- other than that, I have only received Habeas headers in spam.

Guess what my bayesian filter is going to start thinking of those headers soon... this could prove to be a problem for them if they don't get things fixed ASAP.

Extra SpamAssassin rules for this batch of spams

[mehu]

My roommate told me he was getting a bunch of spam last night that was going through SA. I noted that I hadn't. Of course, I got 2 today, and while looking through w/ -t to check everything (it should've been quite obvious), noticed the Habeas X-Headers in there, & found their little notice about this rash of spams. So, rather than just add a score of 0 for HABEAS_SWE, I figured I'd give them a chance & added the following to my ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs, which takes care of the current rash:

body PHARMAWHAREHOUSE /pharmawharehouse.biz/
describe PHARMAWHAREHOUSE Link to pharmawharehouse.biz

body PHARMACOURT /pharmacourt.biz/
describe PHARMACOURT Link to pharmacourt.biz

body VALUEPOINTMEDS /valuepointmeds.biz/
describe VALUEPOINTMEDS Link to valuepointmeds.biz

score PHARMAWHAREHOUSE 10
score PHARMACOURT 10
score VALUEPOINTMEDS 10

Looking through my mail, it turns out some of my valid mail actually does contain those headers (would never have noticed them), and a few spams, even w/ the haiku headers, have been blocked by HABEAS_VIOLATOR (RBL: Has Habeas warrant mark and on Infringer List), so the company does appear to be doing its job..

Re:Fair Use

[Sircus]

bright-ly an-tic-i-pa-ted

5 syllables in anticipated, for a total of 7 on the line, making it (assuming you pronounce SWE as Swee and ignore the tm) 5-7-5, with a mention of seasons. Seems valid to me...

Disable habeas rule

[mattiv]

To disable the Habeas rule, edit file $HOME/.spamassassin/user_prefs
add line

score HABEAS_SWE 0

Re:Never likely to work

[Anonymous Coward]

According to the statement given, the latest version of SpamAssassin should be able to filter these out. We're running what I think is the latest (2.61) and it still seems to be letting them through - thanks to the Habeas mark.

You have to enable network checks to filter these. Then when someone sends you an email with the Habeas mark, Spamassassin will check to see if the originating IP is on the infringer's list. If it is, then they don't get the credit for using the hiaku.

This assumes that Habeas has listed the spammer's IP address in thier list. I don't know how long it takes for it to get updated.

Make sure your report to Habeas

[p2sam]

Since they will add the offender's on to the blacklist, make sure you report that spam at http://www.habeas.com/report. That way the next unfortunate receiver of that spam would have adjust their score accordingly.

See: http://www.habeas.com/supportBlackList.html

Re:Just... make... me.... UGHRHGH!@~

[rawshark]

Maybe this would help?
The Spammer's Compendium