The Abusive Hosts Blocking List
The Abusive Hosts Blocking List is an abuse tracking and filtering system developed by The Summit Open Source Development Group, and based on the original Summit Blocking List (2000-2002).
DNSbl and RHSbl Lists
The AHBL operates several DNSbl lists and one RHSbl list for use in various types of services. While most of the data is automatically added and removed, the AHBL prefers to manually manage certain categories by hand for accuracy.
The DNSbl list was developed for use in SMTP services and is "a real time blocking system. This means that data is collected from various sources 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in real time, and merged into our database."[1] The data includes spam sources, open proxies, open relays, DDoS drones, Usenet spam sources, and the controversial Shoot On Sight listing policy.
The IRCbl list is a reduced version of the DNSbl that does not include spam sources or other data unnecessary for use in IRC networks and other chat systems.
The RHSbl list is domain based rather than ip4r. It includes domains owned and/or operated by spammers, known abusive domains, and domains that are not used to send e-mail (on request of the domain owner). It is commonly used to block domains in the From: address of e-mail, as well as SURBL type systems that scan the links in e-mail.
The TORbl list is an ip4r based list of Tor (anonymity network) nodes. It includes only public exit nodes on the tor network.
Controversy
Several of the AHBL's actions since its creation have led to harsh criticism from other members of the spam fighting community for being overly aggressive and unreasonable. One such example is the complete blocking of Spain's largest Internet service provider, Telefonica.es, for more then 6 months "because of the ever increasing amount of spam and illegal 419 coming from rima-tde.net IP space."[2] The AHBL has also publicly spoken out against the Spamhaus .Mail ICANN proposal.[3]
The second major source of controversy comes from the AHBL's Shoot On Sight listing policy, which is commonly used by its administrators to force ISPs to take action against known abusers. It also tries to hold accountable individuals, companies, and providers responsible for legal threats and actions against spam fighters.
AHBL In Court
Richard Scoville/FreeSpeechStore vs. AHBL/SOSDG/Bruns/Kirch
After constant lawsuit threats for years prior to 2005, on December 17th, 2005 Richard Scoville of FreeSpeechStore.com (pro-se) sued the AHBL, SOSDG, Brian Bruns, and Andrew D. Kirch in Bexar County, TX for $3.525 million USD, claiming damage for personal humiliation, embarrassment, emotional distress, and other damages relating to his business (known as FreeSpeechStore).
Word of the lawsuit spread through various Usenet groups including NANAE after Scoville tried to publicly grandstand on his side of the case. Shortly after, Andrew D. Kirch released a public statement confirming the lawsuit, and Brian Bruns made a public plea for donations to help cover the cost of the defense.
In what the AHBL described as an attempt to intimidate potential donors, Scoville threatened to sue any individual or company that donated to the AHBL Legal Defense Fund. This caused the exact opposite of the desired effect, and several news sites carried the story of the lawsuit. Within one week, more then $4000 USD had been donated to the fund.
Due to jurisdictional concerns, the AHBL was granted a special appearance hearing, represented by Mary Claire Fischer (Attorney At Law, Bexar County, TX).
On January 5th 2006, Scoville provided witnesses to support his claim that the jurisdiction was valid in Bexar County, TX, which included the designers of his website, Brandon Zumwalt of Internet Concepts (his former hosting provider), and Detective Brian Padier of the San Antonio Police Department Computer Crimes Unit.
On January 6th 2006, the case was dismissed with prejudice.
The AHBL's administrators continue to hold the opinion that this lawsuit is frivolous, brought against them for the purpose of intimidation (to force removal of Scoville's website IP address from the AHBL's DNSbl) and to cause both Kirch and Bruns financial harm (through the expendature of large amounts of funds to defend the out of state cases).
Mr. Scoville continues to post libelious statements in teaser form on usenet via Google Groups to entice people to his pay-to-read website FreeSpeechStore.com (FSS) where free speech costs $4.00 per speech to read. Many of his FSS rants is his labelling a person as a pedophile or sexual deviant. He targets people well outside his local legal jurisdiction (San Antonio, Texas) such as Ottawa, Canada and Australia. A simple Google search can verify these facts.
See also
External links
- The Abusive Hosts Blocking List
- Abusive Hosts Blocking List listing policies
- AHBL Page on FreeSpeechStore lawsuit