CNN logo Navigation Infoseek/Big Yellow Pathfinder/Warner Bros Tech banner IBM Reinventing Education rule SPAMMING LEADS TO UUNET 'DEATH PENALTY' Spam graphic August 4, 1997 Web posted at: 9:34 p.m. EDT (0134 GMT) SAN FRANCISCO (Reuter) -- A loose coalition of system administrators Friday began issuing a "Usenet Death Penalty" against UUNET, a major Internet service provider, for its alleged failure to curb "spam" emanating from its dialup accounts. The penalty took effect 5 p.m. (PDT) Friday, and according to a release from the coalition, "all traffic coming from these sources is to be canceled until further notice." The penalty entails the use of a program called a cancelbot that travels from site to site, looking for newsgroup messages that originate from a particular person or ISP. When it finds one of the messages, it issues a cancel order, which effectively erases the message. Spamming is the bulk delivery of unwanted electronic messages via e-mail or newsgroups. The action marks the first time a large-scale ISP has been the target of a cancelbot. The penalty's purpose, said Dennis McClain-Furmansky, is to "mobilize the user base and get them to insist on their ISP to give them a clean feed. Right now they are paying $20 a month for trash." McClain-Furmansky, speaking on behalf of the Usenet death penalty issuers, explains that, unlike other ISPs such as EarthLink and Bell Atlantic, UUNET has done little or nothing to curb spammers using its service. "The few responses they've made to our complaints have been excuses," he said. After Bell Atlantic was informed by site administrators several weeks ago that it had been targeted for the Usenet death penalty, the service took immediate action to halt spam, McClain-Furmansky said. "We told them what was being planned, and they are making a clear effort." McClain-Furmansky said that the action was drastic, but it was a last resort to close off a flood of spam that was "knocking servers offline." On Friday, one of the administrators involved said his system processed 1 million messages for the first time ever. Forty percent of that was spam, 40 percent cancel messages, 20 percent legitimate traffic." About half the cancel messages issued are for spam originating from UUNET dialups, said McClain-Furmansky. "In my opinion, this is by far the worst censorship action the Net has seen to date," said Dave Hayes, who represents a group called the Freedom Knights, dedicated to "true free speech" on Usenet. Hayes said those pushing the death decree should be "summarily condemned by all those who are in support of free speech, which unfortunately includes unsolicited advertising." Brian Moore, a system administrator in Britain who oversees the Usenet feed for his site, said he is not surprised that the action was taken against UUNET. "Amongst the 50-some complaints I have sent them in the past week, I have received nothing but form letters back. The spamming customers continue spamming and there is no indication UUNET has acted in any way at all." Moore said he has canceled hundreds of porn spams appearing in alt.sexual.abuse.recovery. "Quite frankly, UUNET is irresponsible in their inability to control their own customers," he said. UUNET declined comment Friday. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. rule Related sites: Note: Pages will open in a new browser window * UUNET Global Homepage * The Anti-Spam Project * Internet Spam Haiku Contest * Internet Spam Control Center External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive. Search for related CNN stories: ________________________________________ ______ [Help] Tip: You can restrict your search to the title of a document. Infoseek grfk Example: title:New Year's Resolutions rule Watch these shows on CNN for more sci-tech stories: CNN Computer Connection | Future Watch | Science & Technology Week rule Message Boards Sound off on our message boards Tell us what you think! You said it... [INLINE] IBM Reinventing Education rule To the top © 1997 Cable News Network, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you.