[geeks] A new Assualt on Net Freedom

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Mon, Apr 24, 2006 at 07:23:56PM +0100, Mike Meredith wrote:
> After all, it will only cause a problem for a tiny fraction of my users
> and the more people who can't email Verizon customers, the more Verizon
> customers are going to start screaming.

I don't know how many of your users send email to Verizon customers,
since many people send mail to mailing lists they could be sending
messages to people they don't even know. 

How often do you reply to a message on the list, and that list has it's
reply set to the sender, not the list, but don't look at to whom you 
are sending. Using MUTT, I always hit "g" to reply which sends a message
directly to the poster and to the list. 

If I am answering with something personal or that I don't want to share
with the list, such as a way to AVOID taxes, I will send it to them
privately and note that on the top of the message. However, I still don't
look at the email address, I look at the name they use. If it's bogus,
I don't bother to answer.

Some email lists are 99% fake email addresses, people use hotmail or 
gmail or yahoo, with dummy names. Sometimes to avoid spam, sometimes
to avoid taxes on items they are selling. 

Other lists are mostly real names, or nicknames, etc. 

For example I, send direct email to about 5 people on Verizon, not
including list members, My wife sends email to others, and I don't know
who they are as I've never monitored her outgoing email.

I assume you can figure out how much work it would be if your user's email
was suddenly rejected by five ISPs, but what about 50, 100 or 500? What if
they each charged you a processing fee? What if they each charged you a 
monthly or annual forwarding fee?

On the other hand, what if you implemented the same policy? Would you want
to sit there and add all the domains they send email to to a sendmail 
(or whatever) access table?

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
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