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February 28, 2005

Vint Cerf on the Send-Safe shutdown

So, did MCI blink? Was the recent shutdown of the Send-Safe.com site the result of MCI amending its policy of providing safe harbor to known spammers?

I asked MCI senior VP Vint Cerf for an answer to that question. Cerf emailed me this (somewhat cryptic) statement:

While we generally do not comment about customer matters, it is fair to say that the company is always ready to examine its acceptable use policy and apply and adapt it in the interest of Internet users. Spam is just one of the many concerns we confront in our daily efforts to improve the quality of Internet services.

It is my understanding from talking to sources close to MCI that the big ISP put pressure on MTI Software, an MCI reseller that was hosting Send-Safe.com. Apparently MCI issued an ultimatum to MTI: cut off Send-Safe, or we'll cut you off.

(When I approached Send-Safe owner Ruslan Ibragimov today for more information on his future plans, he told me over ICQ to, er, buzz off.)

So, kudos to MCI for doing the right thing. Perhaps, behind the scenes, people there are applying similar pressure to get the 200-some other spam sites shut down.

Posted by brian at February 28, 2005 10:50 PM

Comments

Posted by: Spamhuntress at March 3, 2005 2:02 PM

Posted by: Brian at March 3, 2005 11:03 PM