[governance] Re: Antispam practices

[Tapani Tarvainen]

On Thu, Sep 28, 2006 at 01:36:46PM +0200, Vittorio Bertola (vb at bertola.eu.org) wrote:

> >Look at it another way: if your ISP is behaving in a manner that does
> >not suit the way you want to use the Internet (by blocking ports, using
> >blacklists, etc), you are free to switch to a competitor.
> 
> And if basically all major ISPs in a country behave like that?

Well, which sounds easier: getting one (major) ISP to change
its ways, or persuading all mail server admins in the world
to change theirs?

ISPs *will* change their ways if they become convinced it'll
bring them more money. Probably not enough people care or
even know about the issue to make them a difference as such,
but some might be persuaded by the idea that it'd be good
publicity-wise, especially if some prominent people would
make noise about it.

> Or what if you live in a country where you can only pick one
> (national) ISP?

And that one is really bad. Well, been there, done that,
in Saudi Arabia of all places, and I did build myself 
a way around their blockades (also for www). But not 
everyone would be in a position to do that.

> It's not that I don't see the market solution and the importance of 
> getting ISPs to behave, but I just don't assume that users are always in 
> a position to switch ISP, or that not being blacklisted should become 
> the main criterion to pick your ISP. Most users don't even understand 
> what blacklisting is, you can't expect them to deal with this problem.

Of course not. For most it is no problem if someone who 
can't or won't use their ISPs or other well-known service 
providers (like Google) mail service can't send them mail.

But it does not have to become the main criterion: even a minor
criterion can make a difference, if there's net profit in it. 
And since those who are hurt by stupid ISPs are probably more able
than average in getting their voice heard and certainly more
technically savvy than most, their opinion might count. Even if Joe
Average has no clue what blacklisting is, he might consider it that if
someone known to be knowledgeable says certain ISP is clueless.

> And then, actually what you are suggesting is that I should only pick 
> ISPs that give me static IP addresses, since dynamic ranges are being 
> blacklisted anyway just for that reason :-(

As a practical alternative, how about getting yourself a mail relay
with static IP? It will cost you something like 10-20 eur/month.
(And it could be shared by quite a few people, as long as you
trust they're not spammers.)

-- 
Tapani Tarvainen
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