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(April 2001)
 

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Subject: Re: AOL Terms -- Revealed
From: "John R Levine" <johnl @ iecc . com>
Date: 30 Apr 2001 09:09:29 -0400
To: "Bernie Cosell" <bernie @ fantasyfarm . com>
Cc: "list-managers @ GreatCircle . COM" <list-managers @ GreatCircle . COM>
In-reply-to: <200104300948.f3U9mqt01302@mail.rev.net>

> Just to make clear here, in the course of lauding AOL for not bombing 
> third-parties, keep in mind that this is just a consequence of 
> *their*own* non-compliant email handling choice, and is _not_ inherent in 
> "good email handling".

Sigh.  There's nothing whatsoever non-compliant about accepting mail and
bouncing it later if it's not deliverable.  The RFCs have always said
that's legitimate, lots of mail systems other than AOL's do so, and there
are quite sensible reasons to do so having nothing to do with spam.

Also, a moment's thought would reveal that bouncing with a 550 would
mailbomb third parties just as thoroughly as sending out the bounces
later, except that the bounces would come from the open relays rather than
from AOL.  I can't see why you think that would be an improvement.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner
Finger for PGP key, f'print = 3A 5B D0 3F D9 A0 6A A4  2D AC 1E 9E A6 36 A3 47 




References:
Indexed By Date Previous: we aren't the enemy, but it's hard to prove it
From: Tom Neff <tneff@panix.com>
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Indexed By Thread Previous: Re: AOL Terms -- Revealed
From: "Bernie Cosell" <bernie@fantasyfarm.com>
Next: Re: AOL Terms -- Revealed
From: Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>

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