It's simpler than all this (Score 1)

Good article, but there's a simpler way of stating the problem: 1. No thinking person should allow anyone else to decide what he is, or is not going to accept as e-mail: not my ISP, not my lawyer, and not even the good folks running the RBL. The problem is with not taking the trouble to make sure that your ISP isn't taking any liberties: this is actually quite easy to do, given the competitive nature of this particular business. So, the decision to use the RBL or not should be jealously guarded, and not ceded to others. Simple. 2. The thing about the RBL that is most annoying is that they cloak themselves in the veil of rightousness, when they're just offering advice. They're basically saying "Hey, here's a list of people who we think contribute to spam in one way or annother, so you may want to reject mail from them on your server". Oh, and by the way, there are some criteria we use to decide ... they're pretty broad, but take a look, and decide for yourself. If you don't agree, don't use the list. It's that simple. Oh, and yes, you DO have a choice. It's not an excuse to say that you rely on your employer's system, or your school's or whoever's server to get your mail. You don't have the right to the free use of someone else's property (this includes their servers, wires, IR ports, or whatever)-- just get yourself a dial-up connection to an ISP that does not use the RBL. Oh, and it would be big news to hear that the backbone routers are rejecting all traffice from RBL'd IPs -- as far as I can tell, this just ain't so.