First, SpamCop incorrectly listed the Politech server as a source of spam on Feb. 11. Then SpamCop incorrectly listed the Politech server as a source of spam for three or four days (if I recall properly) circa July 8. Now SpamCop lists Politech on its spammer-list because some other servers also hosted at Rackspace.com are alleged spammers. I wrote to SpamCop's Julian Haight in July asking him if he could prevent this from recurring. He wrote back: "I don't see what proactive action I can take. There is nothing wrong with the system and it may well happen again. Sorry." SpamCop is a commercial service that compiles a list of alleged spammers and charges $30 a year for individual email accounts and far more, I imagine, for corporate filtering. No spam has ever been sent from the Politech server. Nor was I notified when it was placed on SpamCop's list again. Don't get me wrong. SpamCop has the right to compile and publish blacklists, even if they are not vetted for accuracy and are therefore overbroad and certain to block legitimate mail. But we also have the right to speak out against SpamCop's practices and criticize it where appropriate. I invite SpamCop to defend this overbroad listing -- and say why anyone should trust their service in the future, if my experience with SpamCop is any indication. Personally, I use SpamAssassin and am very happy with it. -Declan --- Subject: politech blocked by spamcop... From: "B. Johannessen" To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> Date: 04 Nov 2002 09:22:31 +0000 Hi Declan, please mask out my email if you forward this to Politech. it seems the Spamcop blacklist has listed the network 216.110.36/24 (all ip addresses starting with 216.110.36), which is where cluebot.com lives. checking the status at Spamcops website shows that 216.110.36.217 (the ip address of cluebot) has no spam reported against it, but that the c class network as a whole is above some threshold. the report is available at the following url: http://spamcop.net/w3m?action=checkblock&ip=216.110.36.217 you may want to drop the nice people at Spamcop a line about this, surely there must be something they can do to get cluebot de-listed. regards, and thank you for Politech. Bob Johannessen, Norway ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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