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Yes, you really have a zombie on your network
July 08 2008
A member of one of the mailing lists I read wrote in saying that one of his client's computers was on the CBL, a well known an extremely reliable list of zombie-controlled computers that send spam. He assumed it was due to bounce blowback, and was asking for copies of the messages that caused the listing. Even… read moreJuly 07 2008
Lost amid the furor about ICANN's rule change that may (or may not) lead to a flood of TLDs is the uncomfortable fact that almost without exception, the new TLDs created since 2000 have been utter failures. Other than perhaps .cat and .mobi, they've missed their estimates of the number of registrations by orders… read moreICANN to add new top level domains, World to come to an end
June 28 2008
The biggest buzz from the Paris ICANN meeting was that the board accepted last fall's proposal for a streamlined process to add new TLDs. A variety of articles in the mainstream press, many featuring inflammatory but poorly informed quotes (from people who probably got a phone call saying "We go to press in five minutes, what… read moreDomain Registration, a Simple Introduction
June 12 2008
I recently gave a talk about the way that domain registrations work. To illustrate it I made a slide that illustrates the process. Any questions? read moreJune 01 2008
A guy I know went away on a trip for a month and a half. When he got back, his inbox had 14,000 messages waiting for him, real ones, since his mail system has pretty good spam filtering. How can anyone deal with that much mail? More importantly, if there are tools to sort, filter,… read moreDot travel still isn't dead yet
May 29 2008
I've writen several blog entries about the continued downward swirling motion of Tralliance, the company that runs the registry for .TRAVEL. In this month's installment, as told in their quarterly 10-Q SEC filing, they flirt with bankruptcy but may well end up more stable than before. One of the more eye-catching paragraphs says: Based upon the Company's current financial… read moreMay 28 2008
A guy I know went away on a trip for a month and a half. When he got back, his inbox had 14,000 messages waiting for him, real ones, since his mail system has pretty good spam filtering. How can anyone deal with that much mail? More importantly, if there are tools to sort, filter,… read moreCAN SPAM and Affiliate Mailer Opt-Out
May 22 2008
Many online businesses use affiliates to drum up business. The affiliate finds a lead somewhere, passes it to the business, and gets a commission if the lead turns into a sale. Web based affiliates are relatively uncontroversial, but affiliates who advertise by e-mail are a chronic problem due to their propensity to send spam, both… read moreWow, Sanford Wallace Owes a Lot of Money
May 22 2008
Last September MySpace sued ur-spammers Sanford "Spamford" Wallace and Walt "Pickle Jar" Rines for egregious violations of CAN SPAM. After some early skirmishes involving an expert for Wallace so unqualified that the judge threw out his testimony, Wallace and Rines stopped responding, so as was widely reported, earlier this week the court granted a default judgement. Since they… read moreDismaying ruling in ASIS vs. Azoogle
May 22 2008
ASIS is a small ISP in northern California. Azoogle is an online lead broker with a history of extremely poor e-mail practices, although they have cleaned up their act enough in recent years to get off the Spamhaus blacklists. ASIS sued Azoogle under CAN SPAM, Azoogle moved for summary judgement, which was granted. Although I can't tell… read moreJeremy Jaynes gets one more chance
May 22 2008
In 2004 Jaynes became the country's first convicted spam felon under the Virginia anti-spam law. He's been appealing his conviction ever since, most recently losing an appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court by a 4-3 decision in February. As I discussed in more detail at the time the key questions were a) whether the Virginia law had… read moreHappy Birthday Spam on the BBC World Service
May 22 2008
I was interviewed this afternoon on the BBC World Service newshour program, about the 30th anniversary of the first spam. To listen in, visit the program's web site. Click the "Listen again" link and, although it was recorded and broadcast on Saturday the 3rd, it is the Sunday 2000 GMT link. The interview is with… read more