IP: New Verizon SMTP email policy

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

My son, Manny<manny () manny com> sent me essentially the same note with the 
same reactions djf


> From: David Pakman <pakman () myplay com>
> To: "David J Farber (E-mail)" <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Subject: New Verizon SMTP email policy
> Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 19:24:53 -0700
>
> Dave,
>
> Here is a despicable situation I thought you and your IP readers would be
> interested in hearing about.
>
> I live in Westchester county, New York. The only DSL provider to my home is
> Verizon. Verizon DSL requires all of their customers to use the Verizon ISP.
> As of Saturday, Verizon (the ISP) made a change to their Terms and
> Conditions (without telling their users). They are now restricting any use
> of their SMTP servers to ONLY those users who have set their return-email
> address to >address to xxxx () verizon net.
>
> This means that if you wanted your email address to appear as
> xxxxx () mydomainname com and "mydomainname" is hosted by some other service
> (that may not even provide email services), you cannot use Verizon SMTP
> servers.
>
> As you know, it is really bad netiquette, (and in fact, often impossible) to
> use SMTP servers other than the ones from which you are getting your
> connectivity. Most ISPs block access to their SMTP servers unless your
> connectivity is provided by them.
>
> So, unless I am willing to send all emails from home with a
> xxxxx () verizon net email address, I can no longer send outgoing email from
> home.
>
> Did someone say "abuse of monopoly power"? While Verizon certainly doesn't
> consider themselves a monopoly any more, there is no other provider of DSL
> services in my area, as Covad and others were forced out of business by
> discriminatory pricing provided by the bells themselves.
>
> Argh. What was the name of that broadband satellite provider?
>
> Regards,
>
> David
>
> ....................................................................
> David Pakman
> President, Business Development & Public Policy
> Co-Founder
> myplay, inc. -- Your music. Anytime. Anywhere.
> www.myplay.com
> mailto:pakman () myplay com



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