Lawsuit threat against RBL users

Thu Nov 19 14:46:32 UTC 1998

That's a pretty shortsighted view, Sheryl.  I suspect you haven't been on
the receiving end of some idtiot buying a leased line/virtual web presence
from you and then spamming from an AOL/PSI/earhlink/yadda yadda account.  It
isn't pleasant.  Folks aren't stupid.  They ignore the fact that the tool
used to spam was a throwaway account and go right for the jugular (you).
It's better to have a zero tolerance policy and not have to deal with the
silliness in the first place.

Chris

Chris Mauritz
Director, Systems Administration
Rare Medium, Inc.
chrism at raremedium.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Sheryl Chapin [mailto:schapin at ctel.net]
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 1998 8:48 AM
To: nanog at merit.edu
Subject: Re: Lawsuit threat against RBL users

>That's right. It stops the practice of using a sacrificial account, from
>AOL or netcom, to spam for a web-site that is otherwise protected. Does it
>make a difference that they didn't spam from their own ISP? That customer
>is *still* a spammer whether they did it from your site or not. Maybe
>you're of the "It's alright as long as they don't do it here" crowd? Well,
>that's one of the things that the RBL was built for. The rest of us don't
>have to put up with your negligence.

I don't see it as "it's alright as long as they don't do it here".  I see
it as "I have control over my network, but not over anyone elses".  I have
an AUP that specifically states spamming is not allowed.  I have kicked off
users who have spammed.  However, I do not have an AUP that says "If you
ever spam anyone ever in the world on any network anywhere I will
disconnect whatever service you have".   I don't control the entire
internet, just my little piece of it. :-)

Sheryl Chapin
Senior Network Engineer
CommTel Internet    207.377.3508
Winthrop, Maine     schapin at ctel.net