Service to jam spam comes unstuck

By ADAM GIFFORD

Controversial anti-spam service Orbs has closed after the collapse of service provider Manawatu Internet Services.

"The web server Orbs was running on has been sold and is being moved, and Orbs can't move," said Manawatu Internet Services director Alan Brown.

"Manawatu Internet Services has been totally funding Orbs. Orbs was always maintained voluntarily by me."

Orbs (Open Relay Behaviour-modification System) published a list of servers that have open relays which spammers can use to send out hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mails.

Internet service providers (ISPs) can use this to block traffic.

Last month, Telecom internet subsidiary Xtra, Wellington ISP Actrix and accounting firm KPMG secured an injunction requiring Orbs to remove them from the blacklist. They claimed Mr Brown was using the service to fight personal vendettas.

Because of the injunction, Mr Brown refused to discuss Orbs.

But he did lash out at Telecom's pricing policies, saying they were largely responsible for driving his company into the ground.

"They say I owe them about $100,000, but I can't afford to fight them and since Manawatu Internet is finished they won't get it anyway."

A Telecom spokeswoman said Manawatu Internet's debt had been placed with debt collection agency Baycorp.

Mr Brown sold his customer list last week to Mercury Telecommunications. He said Manawatu Internet Services was technically insolvent, and he had pulled the plug after negotiations to raise separate funding for Orbs fell through.

Mr Brown said Telecom charged at rates higher than agreed by local sales representatives, and continued to charge him even after he switched to Clearnet in November.

Changing provider brought the cost of bandwidth down 75 per cent, but by then it was too late to rebuild the business.

Mr Brown said that over the past couple of years, Telecom had used the data it gathered as his bandwidth provider to deliberately target Manawatu Internet's larger customers.

"Every organisation or business spending more than $200 a month from us was approached with offers that undercut us," he said.

The Telecom spokeswoman refused to comment. In an unrelated case, small Northland ISP Igrin was almost driven out of business when telecom overbilled it by more than $100,000.

The Telecom spokeswoman said human error was responsible for the Igrin case.

The High Court has yet to release its judgment on a defamation case against Mr Brown taken by Patrick O'Brien, the former chief executive of New Zealand domain name registry Domainz.

After bitter debate within Isocnz, which owns Domainz, the Domainz board agreed to pay Mr Brown $7000 towards his costs of defending the action, in exchange for an apology. Domainz is also paying Mr O'Brien's costs.

The deal came too late to halt the case, which is being closely watched because of its potential to set a precedent about defamation on the internet.