Re: CEASE AND DESIST ORDER

[Mark H. Weaver]

The Free Software Foundation, which administers the gnu.org domain, is
a well-known non-profit charity organization, and I assure you that we
do not send any SPAM email.

However, we do operate several unmoderated mailing lists, and
unfortunately a great deal of SPAM is sent to these lists.  All of our
public mailing lists are operated in a secure opt-in fashion, meaning
that recipients must actively confirm that they wish to subscribe
before receiving messages.

I suspect that someone sent SPAM (containing your company's URL) to an
unmoderated GNU mailing list, which then propagated it to the mailing
list subscribers.  Our mailing list software automatically adds a URL
to the bottom of every message sent through the mailing list, which
allows them to unsubscribe.

Unfortunately, spamcop's software has a flaw -- it often blames the
administrators of mailing lists through which SPAM is sent, instead of
the true originators of the SPAM.

I cannot be sure what happened here without seeing an example message.
If you forward us such a message, with full mail headers (including
the "Received" headers which are often hidden by mail programs), I can
show you where those headers identify the true originator of this
SPAM.

       Mark  (GNU sysadmin)


Evergreen Systems <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> To whom it may concern:
> 
> You are advertising our web page URL in a spam email
> that is being sent, unsolicited, to spam cop
> subscribers.
> We have received notices from spamcop, with our URL in
> your bulk email, due to the fact that our URL is in
> your spam email. your domain name at the bottom of it.
> We did NOT give any permission to use our domain name,
> or include our URL in any spam email.
> If you cause us loss of business due to subsequent
> loss of our web host, monetary damages to your company
> will be SEVERE.
> 
> You are hereby ordered to IMMEDIATELY, and without
> further delay, to CEASE AND DESIST this activity.
> 
> If you do not, we will immediately file a case in the
> state of Massachusetts.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> 
> Jon Capp
> Attorney at Law
> On behalf of Robert Hoyt
> Evergreen Systems
> Eugene, Oregon
> http://www.bulk-email-software.net
> 
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