Anti-SPAM announcement from AT&T Worldnet

Mailman List Mirror (Read Only)
1

As enscripted by Kevin Smith:

Any email...even regular questions/replies....I think specific
types of email would be more appropriate..."spam","obscene" etc.

Kevin,

We meet again. The circles certainly seem small at times. I question
your comments regarding AT&T Worldnet's announcement. I read it as
clearly stating that _any_ mail (not limited to spam or obscene, etc.)
being relayed (not to or from an AT&T Worldnet customer) will not be
delivered by AT&T Worldnet's mail servers. I have three things to say,
each from a different point of view.

1. As a frequent recipient of spam delivered by AT&T Worldnet: it's about
   time. See number 2.

2. As above and a proponent of the open Internet: Yay, another provider
   taking control and repsonsibility for their participation in the
   Internet.

3. As a system admin at an ISP: I don't blame 'em. I have investigated
   methods for doing this myself and will be proposing early next week
   that we take the same measures. Nobody has an obligation to relay any
   mail for any other body on the Internet.

If more mail servers on the Internet took these measures, the level of
spam would come down due to the easier job of finding the real point of
origin of the spam.

Take care Kevin,
b.

2

Any email...even regular questions/replies....I think specific

  > types of email would be more appropriate..."spam","obscene" etc.

  I read it as clearly stating that _any_ mail (not limited to spam
  or obscene, etc.) being relayed (not to or from an AT&T Worldnet
  customer) will not be delivered by AT&T Worldnet's mail servers.

``We have reserved the right to treat such mail any way we deem appropriate,''.
This may include actually delivering it, but in the vast majority
of cases I do not expect the mail to reach its intended destination(s).

We will be keeping statistics and I hope to be able to present these
in some public forum in due course.

Jonathan

3

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the impression that the
Electronic Communications Act of 1986 (?) makes it quite illegal to screw
around with mail that you have accepted for delivery. You have the option
of not accepting it at all, but once you accept a piece of mail destined
for someone, you're obligated to make a best effort to deliver it.

You can't reserve a right that you don't have to begin with, even if you
are AT&T.