In the first move of its kind, managed hosting supplier TDM
has said it will terminate the accounts of customers that send out
spam or allow it to be routed across their servers.
TDM, which hosts web servers for about 250 customers, said it will
terminate the accounts of firms that generate junk e-mail or use
TDM resources to route it.
TDM's technical director Tarek Meliti said if more service
providers took similar measures the spam problem could be greatly
reduced.
Recent estimates from a US Federal Trade Committee put global spam
volumes at between 40% and 75% of all e-mail traffic. Industry
experts in the UK have estimated the cost to business to be
billions of pounds a year in wasted bandwidth and storage
resources.
Meliti said, "Our acceptable use policy says that those who send
out spam or allow it to be sent across their servers or otherwise
abuse the internet will have their contracts terminated. There are
enough decent companies out there that we are happy to work with to
mean that we do not need those that spam - it is better for us in
the long run.
"It is easy enough for other companies to do this because lists of
spammers are kept. If more of them did this it would force spammers
to look abroad for hosting services and handicap them
greatly."
Graham Titterington, senior analyst at Ovum, welcomed the move.
"There have been mutterings about doing this for some time but this
is the first time I have seen someone putting their head above the
parapet.
"If the industry is to be regarded as mature, it is good to see
someone doing something about it. It is a good idea but it raises
freedom of information issues."
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