From:"t r u t h o u t" To the Readers of Truthout, This is a letter from TO Legal Counsel William M. Simpich addressing the blacklisting of the TO Daily Edition Newsletter.
Marc Ash, Executive Director - t r u t h o u t mailto:XX@XXXX.XXXXXXXX.XXX
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William M. Simpich July 3, 2003
To: The readers of truthout.com
From: Counsel for truthout.com
Re: Blacklisting
This is a short note to let you know that your complaints about not receiving your copy of Truthout have been heard, and that action is being taken. Truthout has contacted SpamCop and Yahoo! and protested the blacklisting of its organization. Truthout is active in grassroots outreach and organizing via the internet; it is a vital and productive part of our core mission. However, Truthout has never engaged in indiscriminate mass spamming.
So how does Truthout come to be blacklisted?. An individual with a political axe to grind can easily manipulate a Reader-based SPAM rating system. Clearly, Truthout has been targeted in this manner. As Ray Everett-Church, the counsel for Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, stated in the May 14 Washington Post, some blacklists indeed become "little more than tools for people's personal vendettas."
Both SpamCop and Yahoo rely on the highly flawed reader-based SPAM rating system. In fact, on SpamCop's website, it discusses the status of the SpamCop blocking list. It states that it "should not be used in a production environment where legitimate e-mail must be delivered." Then it admits that it "err(s) on the side of blocking mail...there is no warranty associated with using this system. It is provided as is." (Emphasis in original)
We have informed SpamCop that it is "inviting a defamation suit by using such tactics against a commercial e-mailer. By engaging in such a tactic with a noncommercial organization such as Truthout, you are virtually guaranteeing a victory."
First Amendment advocates in the noncommercial sector such as Truthout should not have their speech deterred in any way. While everyone hates the spammers, neither SpamCop, Yahoo or anyone else should be deciding what people in the United States are allowed to read.
Sincerely,
William M. Simpich
From:"t r u t h o u t" [...]
TO Blacklist Battle Status:
A quick update on the status of our efforts to end the Blacklisting of the TO Daily Edition Newsletter.
For the time SpamCop is no longer blacklisting TO. But they have a system that allows users to effect the blacklisting by filing multiple complaints, so that can change any time.
Yahoo is no longer routing TO to the Bulk/Junk folder.
Comcast began banning TO about 30 days ago, but our Comcast readers descended on them with a fury, and overnight they were only to eager to resume normal deliveries. For the record: Comcast can't remember why they banned TO, but they're sorry and they promise not to do it again.
This was a magnificent effort by the TO Comcast readers brigade. I was personally stunned by the ferocity with which they went after Comcast, it was amazing, congratulations one and all.
That's all for now, we will keep you posted,
Marc Ash, Executive Director - t r u t h o u t Return to chronology 14 Jul 2003
2007, September 13: A censoring of Truthout.org communications
Microsoft-Hotmail, while not being forthcoming about their actions to the subscribers involved, have stated to our administrators that they are in fact "throttling" and "blocking" our communications. Further, the Microsoft-Hotmail administrators inform us that they are blocking our communications
to T ruthout subscribers on their systems due to what they describe as our "reputation." 1.) This problem is far larger than we understood. We are learning a lot from the comments sent to us by readers. So - please - keep them coming. [In the last update, Mr. Ash suggested a write-in campaign to MS and Yahoo, et al, to pressure them into stopping this violation of human rights and civil liberties. Personally, I would suggest a nice, big, fat, class action law suit. Hopefully, such a law suit will happen. All that will really be needed, however, is a settlement in which these censormorons admit they fucked up big time and that in the future they will respect the Bill of Rights and the whole of American law. --MN]
Return to chronology 13 Sep 2007
To:XXXXXXXXXXXXX@XXXXX.XXX
Subject:A Letter from TO Legal Counsel William M. Simpich
Date:Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:54:43 +0600
Attorney at Law
XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXX, XXXX XXXXX
Oakland, California 94612
To:XXXXXXXXXXXXX@XXXXX.XXX
Subject:TO Blacklist Battle Status
Date:Sun, 20 Jul 2003 23:18:16 +0600
mailto:XX@XXXX.XXXXXXXX.XXX
By America On-Line and MicroSoft. On this day, TruthOut Executive Director Marc Ash posted an article at the indy media web site in which he stated that both AOL and Microsoft related email providers, including Hotmail, were preventing the delivery of a range of communications to thousands of Truthout subscribers. Mr. Ash wrote about the situation:
While AOL has been largely evasive and silent about their reasons for blocking communications, our server logs and complaints from subscribers illustrate a clear pattern of interference.
Mr. Ash followed up with daily updates to the original article. On 15 Sep, he wrote:
A few things are becoming apparent at this point:
By 18 Sep, the list of censors had grown to: AOL, Hotmail, MSN, WebTV, and Yahoo. By 20 Sep, Mr. Ash reported that AOL had stopped interfering with TruthOut communciations, but that MicroSoft had become obdurate and had blatantly refused to respect the right of private citizens to receive what information they wanted. See the source article for more background.
2.) It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Free Email Services - all of them - are a morass. You are a commodity to these administrators and as far as they are concerned your rights are your problem, not theirs. If you are serious about receiving TO, or any other content they
are n ot supportive of, you are pretty much on your own. Bluntly stated: AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo and all of the domains they control restrict what you receive in your inbox. And it is at their discretion, not yours.
3.) We intend to fight this.