Re: [dvd-discuss] EFF opposes blacklisting spammers

[lunatic(at)hatari.dhs.org]

On Fri, Oct 19, 2001 at 12:03:47PM -0700, Bryan Taylor wrote:
> Well, I strongly object to that. If that is really what the EFF is saying, then
> shame on them for not being clear. There is a HUGE difference between
> government action and private action. In fact, since there is a fundamental
> right to petittion the government, I would say that the government cannot use
> MAPS or an ISP that uses MAPS. 
...
> As long as there is a real market alternative that offers unfiltered email,
> then let the market work. There is no reason to get the government involved. 

And, if you are effectively infrastructure, you have greater responsibility.  
The objection to MAPS that is usually raised (and wasn't clearly pointed out in
the EFF article) is to the BGP program.

The BGP uses routing protocols to route all traffic (not just mail) to a black 
hole.  Moreover, it can be set up as a routing magnet, so that traffic which 
would otherwise go through a different route (perhaps on a different ISP) gets 
attracted toward the black hole.  MAPS has a habit of sticking whole blocks of 
IP addresses on this list.  This means that even if neither the sender's ISP, 
nor the receiver's ISP participate in MAPS, traffic can still get blocked.

PK

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