As Bennett Haselton wrote me when I asked him about this:
It was August 2000, but it was planned months before it happened, and months before MAPS started complaining to Media3 about the content of the other sites. But all that the public knew was that the scheduled date of the transfer fell after the date of the RBL listing; that's why a bunch of people were screaming that Media3 must have done it on purpose to cause trouble. However, there were dozens of other sites that were moved, as a group, all at the same time.
What Mr. Haselton neglected to mention is that these sites, including Peacefire, were moved to one of the very few Media3 Class C blocks which was blackholed, even though a far greater number of C-blocks were available to which to move these sites which were not blackholed. This is the total amount of netspace owned by Media3 which I have been able to discover:
63.74.120.0 - 63.74.123.255
206.67.48.0 - 206.67.63.255
209.211.248.0 - 209.211.255.255
This amounts to 28 Class C blocks. Yet I have only been able to discover 4 of these which have ever at any time been in the RBL:
206.67.53*
206.67.55*
206.67.58* (only a portion of this was ever blocked)
209.211.253* (the C-block to which Peacefire & the other sites were moved, 2 months after it entered the RBL)
This leaves 24 C-blocks to which Peacefire et al could have been moved which were not blackholed. I checked these blocks, & plenty of individual IP addresses were available on which these sites could have been placed.
To be perfectly clear, Media3 moved these "innocent sites" to the relatively small portion of its netspace which was already blackholed, even though a far greater portion of its netspace was available which was not blackholed. At the request of a Peacefire member, I asked Joe Hayes of Media3 in January why this had been done, & he sent me only an evasive reply (which I have reproduced publicly in news.admin.net-abuse.email) which did not answer my question. I tried again this week to get an answer from him; this time in his single response he called me an "idiot" for asking this perfectly legitimate question, & still refused to answer it.
The fact that Media3 moved these sites into one of the only 4 of its 28 C-blocks which was blackholed, & the refusal of Mr. Hayes to provide an alternate explanation, does indeed lead me to believe that Peacefire & the other sites were used as pawns specifically to cause controversy for the RBL.
Slashdot Mirror
What Mr. Haselton neglected to mention is that these sites, including Peacefire, were moved to one of the very few Media3 Class C blocks which was blackholed, even though a far greater number of C-blocks were available to which to move these sites which were not blackholed. This is the total amount of netspace owned by Media3 which I have been able to discover:
63.74.120.0 - 63.74.123.255
206.67.48.0 - 206.67.63.255
209.211.248.0 - 209.211.255.255
This amounts to 28 Class C blocks. Yet I have only been able to discover 4 of these which have ever at any time been in the RBL:
206.67.53*
206.67.55*
206.67.58* (only a portion of this was ever blocked)
209.211.253* (the C-block to which Peacefire & the other sites were moved, 2 months after it entered the RBL)
This leaves 24 C-blocks to which Peacefire et al could have been moved which were not blackholed. I checked these blocks, & plenty of individual IP addresses were available on which these sites could have been placed.
To be perfectly clear, Media3 moved these "innocent sites" to the relatively small portion of its netspace which was already blackholed, even though a far greater portion of its netspace was available which was not blackholed. At the request of a Peacefire member, I asked Joe Hayes of Media3 in January why this had been done, & he sent me only an evasive reply (which I have reproduced publicly in news.admin.net-abuse.email) which did not answer my question. I tried again this week to get an answer from him; this time in his single response he called me an "idiot" for asking this perfectly legitimate question, & still refused to answer it.
The fact that Media3 moved these sites into one of the only 4 of its 28 C-blocks which was blackholed, & the refusal of Mr. Hayes to provide an alternate explanation, does indeed lead me to believe that Peacefire & the other sites were used as pawns specifically to cause controversy for the RBL.
Rob Mitchell