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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
http://news.com.com/2010-1071_3-1019814.html Setting the rules for ISPs and spammers By Declan McCullagh June 23, 2003, 4:00 AM PT Peter Hall's troubles with spam began the week of Aug. 5, 1997, when the New York-based independent film producer learned that his EarthLink account had been shut off without warning. EarthLink, a leading Internet service provider (ISP), had concluded--incorrectly, it turns out--that Hall was a spammer. The company terminated Hall's e-mail account but chose not to bounce or forward his e-mail messages. It instead quietly stored them in a mail spool. Anyone sending Hall e-mail likely concluded that the message had gone through. This week, a federal judge in New York is scheduled to hear arguments in a $2 million lawsuit that Hall filed against EarthLink a year later. It claims that EarthLink violated the law and that the missed e-mail resulted in his low-budget film "Delinquent" becoming a flop. (The film, which described a tortured teen's conflict with his abusive father, did manage to score a favorable review from The Village Voice, which dubbed it "raw, restless, contemplative and haunting." The lawsuit is worth watching for three reasons. First, it may address whether oft-controversial antispam blacklists like the Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS) are legal or not. Second, it looks at what happens when an ISP fails to neither deliver nor bounce incoming e-mail. Last year, a Canadian woman named Nancy Carter sued her ISP for $110,000 in damages after it held her mail because of unpaid bills. A relatively new California law requires e-mail service providers to give a 30-day notice before terminating accounts. No U.S. court case decision appears to have addressed this practice, which critics say is tantamount to holding e-mail hostage. Third, it tries to establish the novel--and worrisome--legal principle that ISPs fall into a near-archaic "public interest" category that would prohibit them from giving the boot to subscribers whom they honestly believe to be spamming. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------