TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: EFF: Anti-Spam Measures Block Free Speech

Re: EFF: Anti-Spam Measures Block Free Speech

John Levine (johnl@iecc.com)
20 Nov 2004 06:40:31 -0000

> Where does it say that this is the reason why MoveOn.org's mail is
> being blocked?

Moveon has dreadful list management practices. I've seen lots of
cases where they sent mail to addresses that couldn't possibly have
signed up, inbound-only role accounts and the like. Although I
generally agree with their politics, it's clear to me that they have
only themselves to blame for getting into spam lists, and they would
do themselves a favor if they'd spend less time spreading conspiracy
theories and more time fixing their mail practices.

I haven't been able to figure out why the EFF is so totally unable to
understand e-mail. I talked to Cindy Cohn at the FTC spam meeting
last year and Annalee Newitz at the authentication forum a few weeks
ago, and it was quite clear they've learned nothing, and a lot of what
they think they know is wrong. Arguments about "every user should
have full control over his own inbox" ignore the realities of the way
that spam filters work and the substantial extra cost involved were an
ISP to provide per-user filtering granulatity.

Annalee said she hand sorts 2000 spams a day from her inbox, and
apparently believes that this is a productive use of her time. Go
figure.

John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711
johnl@iecc.com, Mayor, http://johnlevine.com,
Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail

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