FC: SpamCop targets another rival: Despammed.com's free service

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Dec 18 2002 - 12:38:20 PST

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    Previous Politech message:
    "More nuttiness: SpamCop intentionally blocks anti-spam service"
    http://www.politechbot.com/p-04259.html
    
    More background:
    http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=spamcop
    
    ---
    
    Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2002 14:48:02 -0500
    From: Michael <michaelat_private>
    To: declanat_private
    Subject: Re: FC: More nuttiness: SpamCop intentionally blocks anti-spam service
    
    He's periodically blocked Despammed.com, too (yes, another free-service 
    competitor).  For over a month I couldn't even get comments as to why, 
    until I started copying SpamCop on my customers' complaints and telling 
    them all that, like MAPS, SpamCop seems more interested in market share 
    than in fighting spam.  Corporate corruption of the worst kind.
    
    As it turned out, it was interaction of overzealous reporting on the part 
    of my own Italian (i.e. non-English-speaking) users with some oddities in 
    the way I handle my DNS setup.  But -- this is significant -- whereas *I* 
    (or any ethical person) would have set up some special code to exempt an 
    odd setup, once I knew what the situation is, SpamCop's administrators 
    categorically refused to vary their rigid code for the convenience of 
    anyone but themselves.  And some of the logic they use to label people as 
    spam-enabling is highly suspect, if there is no intent to intervene when it 
    turns out that the rules are insufficent to describe reality.
    
    I can't say enough nasty things about SpamCop.  My ISP is still worried 
    about reports they get.  I'm a free spam filtration service, for cryin' out 
    loud!  How much less spam-friendly can you get?  I don't even charge people 
    for the service even though I kill roughly a million spam messages in the 
    course of three months or so!  And I used to think Julian was a kind of 
    cool guy, too.
    
    Michael Roberts
    Despammed.com
    
    
    
    
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