Is the IronPort Whitelist Infact An Extortion Tactic ?

 31 December 18:00   Is the "IronPort" Whitelist Infact An Extortion Tactic ?

     It appears that Mr. Gates prophetic anticipation that charging marketers to forward email beyond the Microsoft email networks (MSN and Hotmail) to cut down on Sp*m is about to appear true.

    According to CIO Today, Microsoft is now employing "IronPort Anti-Spam Technology."

    "IronPort" is a paid "white-list" for humans who forward "mass email" (including newsletter publishers, ezine publishers, associate managers, mini-course operators, and basically anyone who has a account of opt-in emails).

    If you forward any blazon of email area you do a advertisement to anybody on your list, this applies to you.

    If you wish your email broadcasts to get through their filters, you haveto pay a ample fee and column a "bond."

    Here are some facts about this developing story:

    1. They allegation by how abundant email you forward a month, but the minimum allegation is a:

    $375 Appliance Fee, additional

    $500 Anniversary Authorization Fee, plus

    $500 "Bond" fee.

    That s $1,375.00 just to get in the game.

    If you wish to see the complete breakdown, go actuality https://bondedsender.com/fees.jsp

    2. If you go over the "complaint" beginning of 1 complaint per month, then they will debit $20 from your band fee for anniversary complaint to "fine" you for getting naughty.

    Now that sounds acceptable on the surface, but actuality s a book to try on for size:

    Your adversary / adversary / Net "psycho" signs up for 50 fr~e email accounts at HotMail and complains about you every ages if you forward your newsletter.

    49 complaints (50 - 1 accustomed complaint) times $20 a complaint comes out to $980 in fines.

    Now, can you altercation the fines? Sure, absolutely!

    But how abundant will you lose in time, activity and accomplishment against the allegations? (My assumption is, a accomplished lot added than that.)

    You can analysis out all the "rules" actuality https://bondedsender.com/fees.jsp

    Here are the data of the program beeline from the horse s mouth... https://bondedsender.com

    Here s my yield on this accomplished affair (which alone on me out of the dejected today):

    First, don t get me wrong... I abhorrence sp~m with a passion!

    I absorb at atomic an hour a day angry it (down from 3 hours a day just a few weeks ago afore I shut down about 2 dozen email addresses that got harvested by spambots over the endure few years).

    With that said, this accomplished "IronPort" affair sounds and smells to me like "white list" extortion.

    Why?

    Here s the basal premise: "Pay to get your email through our filters, or abroad you run the actual acceptable accident of not accepting your email through at all."

    In fact, actuality s a *direct quote* from their website https://bondedsender.com/faqs/sender.jsp :

    "What happens if I don t band my email? You re rolling the dice and demography your affairs with spam filters, atramentous lists and aggregate folders. Some canicule all of your email may be delivered; additional canicule 30-50% could be blocked."

    Kind of reminds you of a abominable mafia cine on backward night TV:

    Me: "Hey Bugsy, what happens if I don t pay my aegis money this month? What if I angle up to you and debris to pay?"

    Bugsy: "Well, maybe nothin will appear to you because the Bang-up ain t payin absorption if I acquaint him you absitively not to pay. On the additional hand, maybe I ll just accurately you about a little bit... or maybe-- I ll Breach YOUR LEG with this baseball bat! Go advanced and not pay us... then we ll see what happens!"

    Now, aback to my question: "Why should I accept to pay a huge fee to forward email to humans who accept autonomous in to my lists?"

    The altercation from Microsoft (and anon to be additional ISP s) is that the amoral sp~m on the web is costing them a lot of money to bear email cipher wants to read.

    Well, if that s the case, aren t email users battery out banknote or acclaim to pay their ISPs for email casework (mine accuse me $40 a ages for cable), or paying for chargeless casework like HotMail or Beast Mail through examination commercial on every page?

    I was beneath the consequence we were already paying to accept email... and endure time I checked, there was no abode to put a stamp!

    Okay, even if we create it accomplished that and we acquire the altercation that accepted emailers should accept to pay a fee in adjustment to get on that big "whitelist in the sky" somewhere... there are still two actual important considerations here:

    1. First, what about the little guy who starts accomplishing absolutely well?

    You know, the baby newsletter administrator who puts out a abundant ezine or fr-e address or whatever, and gets a lot of subscribers and then wants to advertisement email to them on a approved basis?

    Let s say they alpha authoritative $20,000.00 a year from their ezine... are they now declared to carapace out 6-10% of their balance in adjustment to get their letters through? (And that s if they never get a fine!)

    Do they accept to be penalized for getting successful?

    Apparently so if this arrangement assets boundless accepting by all the big ISP s and email account providers!

    2. Second, what about the top abeyant for corruption at the easily of bent competitors and just apparent jerks that abide the Internet!

    I understand it ability assume harder to believe, but there are psychos out there who will assurance up for a agglomeration of chargeless email accounts just so they can create trouble.

    (This is not paranoia! I had a user who active up, absolutely opted-in from my website, had the emails baffled through a SpamCop abode so I got blacklisted by SpamCop until I could get it straightened out. Oh, and assumption who owns SpamCop... IronPort, that s who!)

    Now, some idiot authoritative after-effects with 100 email accounts won t put a cavity in the pockets of alotof big players in the email arena... for them it ll just be a business expense.

    But for the case of the "little" guy, angry that abeyant corruption and those fees could actively attenuate and even annihilate a apprentice enterprise... and that, in my opinion, is a austere problem.

    In my opinion, all this is traveling to do is cut out the little guy and create it easier for big companies to email the hell out of the blow of us.

    A baby newsletter administrator will acquisition it cost-prohibitive to pay for the service, and some behemothic aggregation will just accumulate pumping the email out because they accept the agents and assets to action the assured complaints.

    And let s face it, if a big aggregation is paying a $10,000.00 a year licensing fee additional announcement a $4,000.00 bond, how advancing do you anticipate the IronTrust humans will absolutely be to get rid of them?

    In my opinion, not very.

    In conclusion: Admitting my ranting, I infact anticipate this is a move in the appropriate administration (albeit a wobbly, drunken, and annoying step).

    Something has to be done to action spam.

    However, at this point, this accomplished arrangement has (in my opinion) too some changing questions, abnormally for us little guys.

    Namely:

    

    
• Do I absolutely charge to do this if I m a little guy operating and growing a newsletter?
  
      
• What happens if I get unfounded spam complaints?
  
      
• At what akin does it create banking faculty for me to do this?
  
      
• What if my newsletter isn t a big accumulation generator... am I declared to accord up the acquirement I do make just to get my emails through?
  
      

    To their credible credit, Yahoo! is aswell aggravating to avant-garde a solution, but this one doesn t arise (at this point) like it will amount publishers or subscribers any money (and I like the complete of that). antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys

    But with so abundant at pale (on both sides), this affair is a far cry from any satisfactory resolution.

    Stay acquainted for added updates as contest warrant...