Another reason to not use MAPS

Tue May 7 22:04:12 UTC 2002

For a long time, I liked MAPS. They were doing good things for free.

Then they started charging for access to their data, under the excuse that
it costs so much, they just need to start covering their expenses. No big
deal, right? They can't bleed money. I understand.

Now, MAPS has filed a lawsuit against a former employee. Why? Because he
might interfere with their ability to make money by giving away something
for free that they charge for!

Read about it on slashdot, I don't feel like pasting URLs. But the bottom
line is that Nick Nicholas, who was Executive Director of MAPS for a bit
a couple of years back, has this to say:

"Last year I decided to write a book about the history of MAPS. My intent
was to focus on the companies that sued MAPS and abused the legal system
in order to prevent MAPS from exercising its legitimate free speech
rights. I wanted to portray Paul and Dave Rand as beleaguered but slightly
flawed heroes.

However, my opinion of MAPS was forever changed this past April when it
decided to sue DUL founder, Gordon Fecyk, after Gordon attempted to
exercise a December 1998 contract he entered into with Paul Vixie in his
capacity as MAPS CEO.

...

It seems that MAPS has learned a great deal from the lawsuits brought
against it by Harris Interactive and others, and has adopted the same
slimy tactics. In particular, the affidavits filed by Margie Arbon and
Anne Mitchell are full of factual errors and material misrepresentations.
I will add my commentary on these affidavits at a later date."

So, you who subscribe to MAPS: When will you be cancelling your
subscriptions? It's no longer about stopping spam with them, now it's
about money. FWIW, the other blacklists out there are just as good. I
particularly like njabl.org.

Andy

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Andy Dills                              301-682-9972
Xecunet, LLC                            www.xecu.net
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