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--------------------------- WarpCast ---------------------------
Source: Dan Porter (innoval@ibm.net)
Moderator: Trevor Smith (editor@os2ezine.com)
----------------------------------------------

Contact: Marianne Roderus, 914-835-3838, innoval@ibm.net,
http://www.webwilly.com.
        
InnoVal Announces New Information About Spam Fighting Software.

Harrison, New York, July 31, 1998 -- InnoVal Systems Solutions
announced new details about its soon-to-be-released new spam fighting
software. A native OS/2 version will be released first. Yet unnamed,
the new spam fighting software will include a database of thousands
of known spammers that is frequently and automatically updated. Logic
rules, including "black hole lookup" will help to identify other
spam.

In a letter to InnoVal customers, Dan Porter, President of InnoVal,
wrote: "This is far more than a filter program. It's a fighting
program. For instance, we're including facilities for forwarding spam
messages to service provider abuse centers. We've gathered email
addresses for most ISPs (it isn't always abuse@domain or
postmaster@domain) and we are building those addresses into the
forwarding facility."

New legislation, much of it now working its way through Congress and
various state legislatures, may provide new mechanisms for fighting
spam. But they also add new problems and may change the way we deal
with spam.

Residents of the State of Washington may now sue spammers, but only
if headers are forged or the subject header is not clear. We are
including logic for detecting forged headers.

A Bill in the United States Senate, S.1618, which deals primarily
with telephone long distance carrier "slamming" includes some
provisions (Title III, Sections 301 through 305), that apply to
unsolicited commercial electronic mail. The bill passed the full
Senate in May and a companion bill in the House, HR3888, is expected
to be voted out of committee soon. It is very likely that this
legislation will be signed into law by the President, soon. The
problems with the Federal legislation are that it legitimizes
so-called "responsible" spamming and places the burden on the
recipient of spam to request removal from the spammer's mailing list.

"We are going to build in tools to help you deal with Section 301'
spam," Porter's letter continued. "Generally, you should never send a
remove request to a spammer. At worst, it confirms that you have a
valid email address and that you read the message you received. At
best, it simply generates rejection notices since the email address
is most often invalid.

"Section 301 spam may need to be treated differently. It is likely
that you will want to send a single remove message. You will want to
keep a copy of the spam, your request for removal, and any rejection
notices so that, if appropriate, you can file a complaint with the
Federal Trade Commission, Internet Service Providers, and appropriate
States' Attorneys General, as provided for in the law. 

"This means that we will need to revise the software as laws go into
effect and as the FTC and various States promulgate rules and
procedures. This we will do free for those who have purchased our
software. 

"The first release, for OS/2, will be around September 1. A Windows
95/98/NT version will follow shortly afterwards. The software is
designed to work separately or in conjunction with your favorite
email client software. I expect the price to be about $25.00. We
haven't named the product yet. If you have a great idea for a name,
let us know."

InnoVal also announced today, the immediate availability of a native
OS/2 version of Web Willy Watch 3.0. Additional details about Web
Willy Watch and unique licensing for the product may be found at
http://www.webwilly.com.

InnoVal is a leading producer of specialized software for the
Internet including the J Street Mailer, a Java email client, Post
Road Mailer for OS/2, and Hacksaw. Hacksaw is a popular 32-bit
Windows and OS/2 Internet file transfer utility.

 ###


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