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China Bans Running Your Own Email Server
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Apr 14, 2006 11:39 AM
from the too-many-of-those-around-anyway dept.
from the too-many-of-those-around-anyway dept.
Erwin_D writes "Under the guise of banning spam, China has ruled that running your own e-mail server has been banned, unless you have a license. To qualify for such a license, an 'e-mail service provider' must abide by some chilling rules: all e-mail must be stored for two months, and e-mail with discussing vaguely defined subject as network security or information security may not be transmitted. While the rules contains all the good measures we would all like to see to combat spam, such as prohibiting open relays and outlawing zombie network, the law is also geared toward controlling free speech. From the article: 'I believe that the intent to have an antispam regulation was a good one ... Unfortunately, it seems like during the policy formulation process, it got hijacked and went to one extreme.'"
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In other news (Score:1)
By the way (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Monday August 07 2006, @03:43PM)
Re:In other news (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Saturday October 27, @04:36PM)
Like Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail, whose parent companies have a presence in China and are more than willing to comply with China's censorship regime and turn people in?
If you want free speech in China, you do not use an American company to do it with.
That's the way it is... (Score:5, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Re:That's the way it is... (Score:5, Interesting)
The final solution (Score:1)
(http://www.klaproos.net/)
What about zombies? (Score:1, Insightful)
So China is still a communist dictatorship? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So China is still a communist dictatorship? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yell at them for their policy all you want, but get out of the cold war era and blame them correctly. I will use one of my favorite quotes from an American president:
"How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."
The only real difference here... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://osrin.net/)
Maybe somebody could clarify US and UK law for me.
Re:The only real difference here... (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday November 14 2005, @11:24AM)
Re:The only real difference here... (Score:5, Insightful)
generally: people tend to be more critical when other ("worse") countries do things.
China: now store email for 2 months
USA: (see next-but-one story) already store email for 2 months but now making it indefinite
China: no emails about bypassing security
USA: no talk of bypassing security in any form
And... (Score:3, Informative)
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1066346/)
Translation please (Score:2, Flamebait)
what's next? (Score:2)
(http://www.farhanahmed.com/)
before we know it, they would start banning sending snail mail, sending faxes, using phones - all in the name of quality control and eliminating spam.
Tolerance fading ... fading .... fading ....... (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Monday November 14 2005, @11:24AM)
One of the downsides of having a tech-saavy government is that in addition to trying to provide the fabled "broadband for all" you also often get crap like this
Sensationalizing at its best (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.paperdir.com/)
"China's new rules also prohibit use of email to discuss certain vaguely defined subjects related to 'network security' and ' information security', "
From the regulation [isc.org.cn] that the article links to
taking advantage of emails to engage in activities which are detrimental to network and information security is strictly prohibited in accordance with related laws.
There is a big difference between "engaging in activities that are detrimental to information security" and "discussing information security"
But with a title like "China Outlaws Outlook" are you really surprised that they are sensationalizing it.
Surprising? (Score:1, Interesting)
spam is free speech (Score:2)
(http://yro.slashdot.org/~drDugan/)
Free speech is an even more powerful concept. This means that everyone has the right to express themselves. EVEN IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, THEY STILL HAVE THE RIGHT. Spam is a great example defining whose responsibility is it to determine what you hear? Email addresses are effectively public domain - like standing out in public. It's the inbox owner who must decide what they want.
All that said, effective spam filtering works really, really well. I get 200+ spam/day and see 3-5/week in my inbox, and virtually 0 false positives. I use vanilla spamassassin and regularly update the ruleset (with 1 keystroke in mutt) for each false negative.
Posts like this on China makes me realize that even with the lying criminals running the US - they are still (for now) better off than the Chinese.
Re:spam is free speech (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:spam is free speech (Score:5, Insightful)
That's stupid and dangerous. You've clearly never run a mail server of any real size. There is a very real and quantifiable cost to spam filtering. For an organization of any significant size (we're talking at least tens of thousands of email addresses), spam and virus filtering needs its own infrastructure. A lot of companies outsource to someone (e.g. Postini). That costs thousands (I know this, I am not talking out of my ass) of dollars every month. Even if the infrastructure is kept in-house, there is a significant up-front investment in hardware, plus the cost of staff to administer the spam/virus filtering infrastructre (if the org is big enough, this could be close to a full-time job). Not to mention the extra bandwidth costs when four spammers do a simultaneous distributed spam run, etc. etc.
It's not enough to allow the "mailbox owner" (a term that dodges the fact that corporate email is owned by the corporation) to decide whether or not they want to use spam filtering. First of all, most end-users have no idea how to make it happen, second, the company has to pay for the disk to store the shit that users never clean out.
Spam is not first-amendment-protected speech. If someone is standing on a soapbox yammering about their religion or hawking viagra or whatever, I can choose not to listen, and it doesn't cost me anything either way. Spam, on the other hand, does cost businesses a lot of money, and it costs the spammer virtually nothing. If spammers had to pay per recipient the way direct (postal) mailing marketers do, spam wouldn't be a problem.
It's 2006. Why are we having this conversation? This was all debated and decided in the late 90s. Did you miss the memo?
Forget Email, use IM! (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Tuesday June 06 2006, @11:38PM)
Impact to US users with Chinese hosting companies (Score:1)
(http://www.bikergoddess.com/)
Americans often forget... (Score:2, Interesting)
Come again? (Score:3, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/~Vorondil28 | Last Journal: Tuesday March 21 2006, @10:47PM)
What you say? China set us up the bomb?
Seriously though, is this a big surprise. No doubt it's a sad day for liberty in China, but with the Chicoms' history when it comes to the Internet, we had to see stuff like this coming.
"Hijacked" (Score:2)
(http://jasonditz.com/)
Nothing new here...move along... (Score:4, Insightful)
Atleast they know they're being monitored... (Score:3, Insightful)
I Want My SMTP (Score:1, Redundant)
(http://slashdot.org/~Doc%20Ruby/journal | Last Journal: Thursday March 31 2005, @01:48PM)
It's encouraging that the mafia Chinese government recognizes the great threat to its tyranny is the power of individual Chinese to control their own communications. Because there are so many Chinese, and they've got their government surrounded.
Doesnt come red flag linux (Score:2)
(http://easyvpshost.com/ | Last Journal: Friday August 26 2005, @06:58PM)
Kinda funny how the state's endorsed products violates its own laws
and yet we still buy "Made in China" (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.gargoyleslanding.com/)
Outlook Server? (Score:2)
(http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/JonCiesla | Last Journal: Thursday December 05 2002, @02:46PM)
On topic, I think this is horrible. What about internal-only email servers? Are those legal? Could that be enforced? Could you be prosecuted for being infected with a piece of SMTP-spewing malware?
hijacked? (Score:3, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/~nurb432/ | Last Journal: Friday August 27 2004, @03:24PM)
2 points for them trying to combat spam.
Instant messaging? (Score:2)
(http://paperlined.org/)
Adoption of gpg? (Score:2)
Damn rice farmers... (Score:4, Funny)
(http://libtom.org/)
It's entirely possible that this is
[ ] Incorrect news
[ ] Making the wrong conclusions
[X] Jumping to conclusions
[X] Flamebait
[X] Copying another post, sorry I had to
Personally I look forward to getting back to Canada and out of the USA so I can get the icky feeling off myself.
Because Canada
[ ] Is so much better
[ ] Has less immigrants
[X] Doesn't have Bush
[X] Can tolerate more than one point of view
[ ] A nation which enjoys equal protection under the law
[ ] Has quality politicians
[ ] Has Effective journalism
[X] Has poutine
Tom
Wait, Wait! (Score:2)
(http://www.thesnarky.com/)
Creeping freedoms (Score:3, Insightful)
Is this a sign of the increasing freedoms that politicians argue(d) liberalised trade with China would bring about?
Same law in Denmark (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.dina.kvl.dk/~abraham/)
except here it is part of an "anti-terrorism" law package.
Workaround (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a shame (Score:1)
However, it's only because bills are so long that things like this are passed through. The Read the Bills Act [downsizedc.org] is a good remedy to the double-edged sword nature of many US Bills. Unfortunately, the people in China have to deal what they're given, but I have no doubt they'll fight back somehow. We've seen it before, and I'm sure we'll see it again and again.
Imitating the Vegas Chamber of Commerce? (Score:2)
I suppose this surprises some people? (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Saturday February 03 2007, @01:16PM)
Why not just go all out? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Prophetic? (Score:1)
"I believe the intent was a good one!" (Score:1)
When you run to Big Brother to solve your problems, you should expect to get fucked in the ass.
The Chinese government... (Score:1)
Fortunately for the rest of the world is a Chinese Politburo formed of thirteen old men who are so afraid of losing their power that they will go to any length to keep as many of their citizens as oppressed and uninformed as possible.
You give the Chinese government an inch and they'll take the equivalent of the Great Wall in length. It's time for Western business to review their positions on China.
Oh Crap (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Monday May 08 2006, @10:06AM)
Re:Here's hoping... (Score:1)
(http://www.jetro.org/)
No, we're not going to offer some Google products, such as Gmail or Blogger, on Google.cn until we're comfortable that we can do so in a manner that respects our users' interests in the privacy of their personal communications.
However, there is an alternative [gmail.cn]...
Re:In a related story... (Score:1)
(http://www.bikergoddess.com/)
Re:China takes care of it's pacifists (Score:2)
(http://www.emarketingpartner.com/)
Re:China takes care of it's pacifists (Score:2)
(http://obsessivemathsfreak.org/ | Last Journal: Friday June 09 2006, @08:15PM)
Wow. People will grasp at any argument, no matter how ridiculous, to keep Americans onside of the China Slave Labour Racket.