Blacklist
From The IT Law Wiki
[edit] Content filter
Black lists are "lists of URLs or Internet Protocol (“IP”) addresses that a filtering company has determined lead to content that contains the type of materials its filter is designed to block.”[1]
[edit] Spam filter
A blacklist (also called a DNS Blacklist or DNSBL) is a list of IP addresses from which spam originates that is used to block email from those addresses. The list is made available to ISPs that operate mail servers so that they can block emails sent to or from those IP addresses. Mail servers may be configured to refuse email coming from IP addresses, IP ranges or whole networks listed on a specific blacklist.
Most of the lists are free and run by volunteers, though their operations may be funded through external sources. Each blacklist has its own criteria for including an IP address in the list and its own procedure for getting an address off the list. Spamhaus, an international nonprofit organisation funded through sponsors and donations, maintains several well-known blacklists — though they prefer the term block lists — which they claim are used to protect over 600 million user inboxes. One of their lists contains the addresses of “spam-sources, including spammers, spam gangs, spam operations and spam support services”; another list focuses on botnets which run open proxies.
Blacklisting, while potentially powerful, has drawn its own criticisms — regarding, among other things, vigilantism of blacklist operators, listing false positives, the collateral damage that may come with blacklisting certain IP addresses or IP ranges, and the financial motives of some list operators. Blacklists have faced legal challenges from spammers, who on occasion have been successful in obtaining court verdicts against being blacklisted.
Despite these issues, most ISPs and email servers use blacklists.
[edit] References
- ↑ American Civil Liberties Union v. Gonzales, 478 F.Supp.2d 775, 790. 775 (E.D. Pa. 2007), aff'd, 534 F.3d 181 (3d Cir. 2008), cert. denied sub nom. Mukasey v. American Civil Liberties Union, __ U.S. __, 129 S.Ct. 1032 (2009).
