[ale] Speedfactory now requires mail contents to be readable

[runman]

----- Original Message Follows -----
From: Robert Story <rstory-l at revelstone.com>
To: ale at ale.org
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
Cc: jsheets at yahoo.com, runman at speedfactory.net
Subject: Re: [ale] Speedfactory now requires mail contents
to be readable
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 13:18:27 -0500

> On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 11:06:27 -0500 Jerald wrote:
> JS>  It is in Speedfactory's best interest to do  
> JS> this type of automated scanning, so as to escape
> culpability in the   JS> spread of viruses and trojans, as
> well as staying off various   JS> blacklists hither and
> yon.
> 
> I don't know about that. Once they start inspecting
> content, doesn't that make them *more* culpable? What's
> next, rejecting mail with dirty words that might offend
> someone? Or PGP encrypted messages?  If I were a
> speedfactory customer, I'd be screaming bloody murder, and
> checking my terms of service.
> 
> It's one thing for a company to have a policy to reject or
> quarantine reception of encrypted zip files, but another
> thing entirely for an ISP to block sending them.
> 
> All this will do is teach people to rename the file to
> '.txt', with instructions to rename the file back to
> '.zip' to get to it. Once this becomes the SOP, it won't
> be long before the virii employ the same methods to lure
> the clueless into their trap. 

I think I tried this and it still choked.  We do this at my
office and it works (yah - sad to say).  It seemed that the
AV was more intent on "reading" my attachment than checking
it for any virii.  An encrypted file could only infect the
person with the password anyway (I'm guessing).  Yes, I will
*try* to get Speedfactory to fix their broken AV program but
I will still set up my mailserver this weekend.

I think that Christopher Fowler's last post was the reason
(I suppose I was in denial about Speedfactory) - that it is
a business reason and the times are a changin'. When I got
the free upgrade to a faster connection and complained to
Speedfactory tech support about being put on PPPOE, I was
told that BellSouth forced PPPOE down Speedfactory's throats
since BS controlled Speedfactory's pipe and BS thought that
PPPOE was "easier to control and administer".  <cringe> 
Like Christopher I was agog and upset but it was the price I
paid for faster DSL.  I made the deal with the devil and the
dropped connections have been getting worse the past months.
 I suppose that their customer base has grown to include
those deserving to be beaten for their unresponsible actions
and so Speedfactory has perhaps been forced to act as their
internet guardian.

However the ISP's have avoided any responsibility for
internet evil just as the telephone companies have done - by
claiming that they only carry information and are not
responsible for it's content.  So yes - I agree with Robert
that by filtering it they seem to be going down a road they
have long avoided.  I guess this will make a lot of
litigation lawyers happy.

First it was Mindspring then DirectTV now Speedfactory -
soon I will be where I started - on MSN on 56K dial-up.  I
guess everything good comes to an end.