companies like microsoft and telia...

Thu Jun 26 06:57:18 UTC 2003

> > ... it is the year 2003, and you bloody well need to learn how to
> > accept complaints about YOUR CUSTOMERS using a format that is most
> > convenient to THE VICTIMS.  (and you should be THANKING US FOR IT since
> > we are DOING YOUR WORK FOR YOU.)
> 
> I agree, I was furious as well when I first noticed it. They're doing it 
> because a lot of people cannot report abuse in the proper way so they're 
> punishing all of us. What they get out of it is automatic tracing of who 
> did what when (because the date and IP is in a known format).

how convenient -- for them, that is.  however, it is counter to their own
self-interest.  as a network owner they need to know about abusive traffic
that comes from their customers.  making it hard to report means
(buddabing!) that it won't be as often reported.  how can THAT help?

> Perhaps someone could write a bcp for an email-form that lays out the same 
> information so we can make the complaints use this format and all abuse 
> departments can accept using this form, to get some structure to it?

yow.  i first asked that this be done in 1998, and for this very reason
among others.  can anybody beat that date (with an earlier one?)  this is
a hard problem but with outlook forms and sri-style ascii templates it's
quite achievable.  note though that many abusebots will reject MIME since
it might contain a virus.  and, there will be huge controversies about 
header munging, list cleaning, complaint forwarding, and definitions of
"abuse", "consent", "implied consent", "recourse", and "standing".

so if ``someone'' writes this up, count me as a grateful&willing reviewer.
-- 
Paul Vixie