1 Sep
2004
1 Sep
'04
6:36 p.m.
> Former president of American Internet Relay League
and proud open
> ARPA Internet mail relay operator, until being forced down by
> harassment from criminal paramilitary death squad organisations like
> MAPS and ORBS.
My dear sir, if you believe criminal behaviour was involved you should
be going to law enforcement, not whining here.
Anyone who runs an open relay mail service is quite
frankly the very
definition of harassment and criminal.
Hardly. At least so far, it is not actually illegal, and thus not
criminal - at least not (as far as I've heard) in any relevant
jurisdiction. Nor, as far as I can see, is it harassment, though it
certainly could be an accomplice before and during the fact. (At least
in most senses of harassment. There is a meaning for "harass", "to
irritate or torment persistently", by which it could be construed as
harassing you for such a thing to merely exist, if its bare existence
irritates you.)
There is never, ever, under any circumstance
whatsoever, a reason to
have an open relay.
Oh, nonsense. Say, on a network not connected in any way to the
worldwide Internet, where the (local) convenience *does* outweigh the
(small) risk.
For any situation that you can propose as to why an
open relay is
needed, I can show you an example of clear lack of understanding in
how to configure the system.
Not "needed". Just, like most security, a risk/benefit analysis, here
coming out in favor of the low setup and maintenance cost.
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