Do you have e-mail? Do you send e-mails to friends, family, and business associates? Of course the answer to these questions is yes. Unfortunately, there are major corporations that intend to restrict your ability to to send or even have e-mail...that is, unless you get it from them. Fascist? Let's see...

United Online (NetZero, Juno, and Classmates.com) is an internet service provider founded on freedom. Their "free internet access"model designed to convert faithful users into paying customers has paid off in excess of 3.2 million profitable subscribers. But all is not well at UA; their stock price plunged last summer, and their profits are diminishing. That happened to be about the time AOL launched a $30 million brand campaign focusing on their commitment to improve customers web-surfing experiences--namely by stopping spam.

Yes, spam, we all hate it. Spam is bulk unsolicited e-mail. Congress hates it too; they have passed several laws denouncing it. And it costs the consumer money, because we have to either pay for programs to block it, or put up with the storage costs and inconvenience.

One of AOL's methods to stop spam was to introduce content filters. Content filters read your incoming e-mails, and detect weird subject headings and words like "buy Viagra without a prescription". Based on this, the content of a message--not the sender--restricts delivery.

But content filters are expensive. Not all companies can afford them. United Online in the midst of their financial woes began an expensive and competitive ad campaign to save face against AOL. In hopes of saving money they hired an outside firm to fight spam for them--a non-profit lobbying organization called Spamhaus (based in the UK).

Spamhaus does not use content filters. Instead, using lists, Spamhaus effectively blocks e-mails for their clients based on the source domain (i.e. hotmail, yahoo, etc.). To be blacklisted by Spamhaus means that none of your users can send e-mails to any of Spamhaus' clients.

So what criteria does Spamhaus use to determine which domains should be listed? Well, they don't exactly say. But Spamhaus has admitted they "[do] not require physical evidence of spam" to add a domain, however, their listings are "backed up with evidence which has fully satisfied the Spamhaus Project team".

The implications of this are incredible. Were an outside organization restricting widespread delivery of U.S. mail (snail mail) based solely upon the mail's origin, it would be illegal mail fraud. If the USPS refused to deliver mail to a specific zip code because some secret criteria had not been met, there would be an unprecedented public outcry. So who is Spamhaus to do this?

The consequences are unpleasant. Because of Spamhaus' tactics, many legitimate e-mails will not be delivered. Depending on the dissatisfaction of e-mail clients, several reputable domains that find themselves somehow blacklisted by Spamhaus may go under because they literally cannot deliver what they sell. And because spammers are definitely at work everywhere (including clients of Spamhaus like United Online) what is the integrity of Spamhaus? Because Spamhaus obviously does not block their own client's domains, it is eventually possible that the sole source of spam will only be Spamhaus' clients!

I asked Spamhaus about the ramifications of their methodology. Their replies reflect their activist vehemence: "We do not, in general, have sympathy for people who choose to purchase (or take) service from networks that support spammers...We have no contractual obligations, nor direct responsibilities, to you; you have no 'rights'...Our direct responsibilities are to our clients…"

Because United Online did contract Spamhaus, I felt that in all fairness United Online could desire to define their corporate culpability in regards to Spamhaus' statements. My attempts to contact United Online's Director of Public Relations, Peter Delgrosso (818 287-3034 at work, 818 951-1689 at home), have been to date ignored.

There is more information I chose not to send to reputable journalists. Like how I am unable to send e-mail to several people because my provider was blacklisted. I asked Spamhaus politely if there could be some mistake. Here's a tasteless vignette of their reply: "Since you have the time to complain to us, you can probably afford an email provider that doesn't need to cater for [sic] spammers. Why not change provider right now? Is it because you are a spammer? If so, we will eventually list their IP as well."

I hate these bastards. And there is remarkably little dirt on them. Now I've had to change my e-mail domain to Gmail (Google's web-based e-mail by invitation only—if I know you just ask and I'll invite you; otherwise, this spooler can send you an invite), though Gmail may soon be blacklisted too.

So how important are the e-mails you send? How about the ones you receive? The systems in place to send and receive information via e-mail were tried and trusted, and they worked. But with the advent of Spam and Spam Fascists like Spamhaus, the only way your information will be received in the future may be to lick a stamp.

UPDATE: To my suprise, the post you have just read has been copied and pasted to scamhaus.org (for those of us who merely skim posts, that's "scam", not "spam"), appearantly by one who commented on this post, Joe Ellis. Also, I received notification that a Dateline NBC producer whom I sent this post to has received my e-mail...so at the very least I know NBC doesn't use Spamhaus.