Subject: [Asrg] [Slightly OT] - From: authentication

From: Kee Hinckley <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2003 12:42:29 -0500

I found it somewhat ironic that this should happen in the midst of 
these discussions about whether one should authenticate 
From/Sender/Return-Path or something else.

Yesterday I received a forwarded notice from my ISP.  It was a legal 
threat from Universal Studios, accusing me of posting copyrighted 
material, and threatening to sue my ISP if they didn't make me stop.

As the complaint said:
>Under the penalty of perjury, the undersigned is authorized to act 
>on behalf of Universal with respect to this matter and the 
>information contained in this transmission is accurate.

Their evidence?
The From: address of a Usenet posting that had "[email-masked]" in it.

And when I objected?
"We are aware that this is most likely a spoof, so please disregard 
the notice for this case."

Thank goodness I have an ISP with some technical acumen.  If that 
complaint had gone to my Cable ISP they probably would have just shut 
me down without even telling me.

http://commons.somewhere.com/buzz/2003/Copyright.Complaint.From.html 
for the complaint and my response. 
http://commons.somewhere.com/buzz/2003/Re.Universal.Studios.DMC.html 
for the followups.

And please--if you have friends in the press or the U.S. 
Congress--send them a copy.  This kind of negligent behavior should 
not go unpunished.

And yes.  I think that domain authentication, even if not perfect, is 
a good idea.

In the meantime, it's clearly time to restart my somewhere.com Usenet 
cancelbot.
-- 
Kee Hinckley
http://www.puremessaging.com/        Junk-Free Email Filtering
http://commons.somewhere.com/buzz/   Writings on Technology and Society

I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.
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