Re: My response to the e-mail address harvesters working this list

[Vern Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To all

I've kept quiet so far on this matter, as our company is involved to some 
degree.

Most of you know my record on this list, that I do not solicit for our 
products beyond what the guidelines allow (at least, I TRY not to). 
Obviously this email puts me in a difficult position vis-a-vis this list 
AND my job.

As far as I know, this email blitz (I have to use that word) was managed by 
a business partner of ours. They apparently used some service called S T E 
d b. I know nothing of this service, except when I went to their site this AM.

I cannot get into the propriety of this email action - was not involved, 
for one thing. But I believe that SpamCop is overly aggressive in its 
blacklists. Some pertinent remarks can be found at 
<http://www.spamex.com/news/2002.12.16.spamcop.cfm>. Reports to them can 
cause unintended damage to people that should not be involved. (Not saying 
that that does not include us right now - I make no statement about our 
role here, as I have no standing to do so.)

Many of us, like our company, are small ISVs for the 400/iSeries. I do not 
speak officially for our company, but personally, when I say these things. 
I ask, if you have a problem with anything with our name on it, please 
contact me first - I do serve in a primary support role here, and will try 
to address you concerns.

The problem of unsolicited email is a serious one - so forgive my attempt 
now to add a little levity:

Being located near Austin, MN, does not make one a spammer.

;-)

I welcome personal responses to my comments. I hope they're are not worth 
using up group time any longer.

Regards

Vern
vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At 07:45 AM 2/26/2003 -0800, you wrote:
> rob@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > They are NOT harvesting this list.  I've sent a private mail off to
> > David, prior to catching up.
> >
> > I have a couple of email addresses.  One, you've never seen.  However
> > I used both to subscribe to some newsletters from Midrange computing.
> > These spammers sent it to both addresses.  Midrange Computing sells
> > those addresses like hotcakes.
>
> I disagree completely.  My MC address was NOT spammed, but the addresses
> I've used for the Midrange lists were.  All of the spams were reported to
> the appropriate parties via SpamCop.
>
> Bill