Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 20:13:23 -0500 (EST) From: BCPL.NET SysAdmin To: BCPL.NET News Subject: BCPL.NET NEWS: Mail To AOL Blocked Again ------------------------------------------------ BCPL.NET E-MAIL SENT TO AOL BLOCKED BY AOL AGAIN ------------------------------------------------ In a BCPL.NET News message dated December 12th I explained that all e-mail from BCPL.NET to America Online (AOL) was being rejected by the AOL mail servers due to a large amount of spam sent to AOL addresses by a BCPL.NET customer. The blocking began some time on December 11th and ended at about 8:00 AM December 12th. We have had several more occurrences of mail being blocked by AOL, starting some time on Thursday January 1st and continuing intermittently through about 6:30 PM on Saturday January 3rd. The reason was the same: A BCPL.NET customer was sending many thousands of spam messages to AOL addresses, using falsified "From:" addresses. Fortunately this time we were able to determine the spammer's identity. If it's any consolation (probably not), BCPL.NET is not alone as a target for AOL's rather extreme anti-spam measures. It is affecting all Internet Providers, and is a hot topic of discussion on the Internet. I'll remind you all again that the sending of spam from BCPL.NET and falsification of your e-mail identity are both prohibited in BCPL.NET's "Acceptable Uses and Conditions Policy". The latest version of the AUCP, which was recently updated, is always available on our Web site at http://www.bcpl.net/policies . The section pertaining to spamming and identity falsification reads as follows: I will not engage in any illegal or legally questionable activity via my BCPL.NET Internet Account, including (but not restricted to) cracking, hacking, software piracy, copyright violation, chain letters, harassing or vulgar e-mail, unsolicited mass e-mail (spamming), fraud, identity falsification, identity theft, etc. If any BCPL.NET customer is found to be in violation of that section of the AUCP, his/her account may be terminated immediately without refund.. New Federal legislation called the "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003" (popularly known as the "CAN SPAM Act") went into effect on January 1st. There have been many complaints voiced on the Internet that the Can Spam Act is too weak, and that it actually legitimizes some types of spam. Be that as it may, it does outlaw most types of spam, and it specifically prohibits the use of falsified sender identities in spam and the falsification of mail routing information in message headers. If you are considering becoming a spammer, keep in mind that in addition to violating our AUCP you may also be violating Federal law. -- BCPL.NET INTERNET SERVICES 320 York Road Towson, MD 21204-5179 U.S.A. CONTACTS: -------- Web Site: http://www.bcpl.net Administration & Policy: ispadmin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 Sales, Renewals, Account Status: accounts@bcpl.net 410-887-4172 Technical Support (Help Desk): help@bcpl.net 410-887-3297 Usenet News Newsgroup Requests news-admin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 E-Mail & Newsgroup Abuse Reports: abuse@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 Domain Name Service Issues: dnsadmin@bcpl.net 410-887-6180 FAX: 410-887-2091