Paul Vixie said: >a long time ago i warned that the real victim of spam would be "openness" >and that when closed communities with gates started appearing, then we would >all know that we had lost the battle. what i failed to predict was how long >the "losing" would last before "lost" was generally considered obvious. >it seems that comcast has determined that it costs them a lot more support >expense for a customer who can initiate SMTP than for a customer who can't. >they may also have discovered that such customers are willing to pay more. >and they have certainly discovered that maps's dul is a voluntary method >by which they can reduce or limit their support expenses on customers who >are not paying extra for the "initiate SMTP" service. >if you don't believe that comcast ought to have the ability to control how >its services are used, then your recourse is the local PUC, and the FCC. Dan Kolis says: Well, without a voluntary and widely deployed careful, specific, fair policy, eventually opening any socket will be (obviously) be a civil right, That is, if you have been enabled for a TCP session; (paid ISP, in school, etc) being denied any service on the basis of its content will be illegal; (at least in countries with civil rights policies). A like freedom of speech thing. This is why companies with differentiated services; (mail relay, MTA's, WWW) should charge less for basic service, have no support, and add QoS etc. And charge a little for everything beyond the basics. (UDP, TCP) This is clumsy but is exactly the dotted line between "Value added" and "basic services" the FCC used to regulate AT&T. Clumsy, but if the legal system understood technology better, it need not be arbetrary. But, you know, since SPAM kicks this all off as a visible problem... just like direct mail (paper); if no one ever buys anything, or falls for a scam, etc the incentive to create it ceases. Too bad people are well, not too smart. Regs to all, Dan K Dan Kolis - Lindsay Electronics Ltd dank@hq.lindsayelec.com 50 Mary Street West, Lindsay Ontario Canada K9V 2S7 (705) 324-2196 X272 (705) 324-5474 Fax An ISO 9001 Company; SCTE Member ISM-127194 /Document end