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Re: [Asrg] 6. Proposals: MTA MARK vs port 25 filtering?

2003-12-16 17:04:38
On Sun, Dec 14, 2003 at 03:48:47PM +1100, Brett Watson wrote:
Our contributor named "Mark" has been harping on the "presumption of 
innocence" principle, but it's precisely the viability of that principle 
that's in question here. There is a certain quantity of spam which exists by 
abusing the "presumption of innocence", so called. It's a badly 
emotionally-laden term, since to advocate the converse is to advocate 
"presumption of guilt", and you may as well advocate the strangulation of 
small furry animals and children while you're about it. Rather than 
"presumption of guilt", we should have "explicitly negotiated access". We 
could recommend that port 25 be available (in some cases) only when 
explicitly arranged, not on the basis of prior "guilt" or "innocence", but 
purely to make accountability explicit.

Folx, I don't get it ;-)

If you are running a mailserver (MTA) you are free to block every host
that you wish. Our mailserver (not for our customers) will not talk to
about 150 millions of IP addresses on the Internet. This list grows with
a rate of about 250000 a day. This is my decision as the receiver and
every receiver is currently free to make that decision.

So, why do you want to have any transport agents (aka ISPs) install
filters and remove your ability to make that decision on your own?
If it's blocked by the transport agency you have no way to reverse that,
no matter how your decision might be.

If the port is blocked you get no information on why it is blocked. So
the theoretical sender is still unknown to you. Maybe the ISP is having
an issue of some sort and is now blocking the sender with an attempt to
put pressure on him.
Port 25 is interrupting services and not speading policy or sender
information.

        \Maex

-- 
SpaceNet AG            | Joseph-Dollinger-Bogen 14 | Fon: +49 (89) 32356-0
Research & Development |       D-80807 Muenchen    | Fax: +49 (89) 32356-299
"The security, stability and reliability of a computer system is reciprocally
 proportional to the amount of vacuity between the ears of the admin"

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