This has resulted in minor problems for Ampol -- but has disrupted email for hundreds of other exit109.com clients.

The problem began last Thursday, when Kelly Thompson, the "project manager" for MAPS' so-called "RBL" (relatime blackhole list), acted on a complaint against Underwriters Digital Research (UDR), the leading Internet survey research company, which UDR believes to be bogus and fraudulent.

The full story can best be told by responding to an email from Ms. Thompson to exit109. Our editors had a chance to discuss the situation with all the principals save Ms. Thompson, and our comments follow each quoted section.

"On Thursday, June 8, I called Liz Callahan, Exec. VP of Underwriters
Digital Research, concerning this RBL nomination."

"I reached... a principle of UDR. I told him that I had a nomination for 
UDR and associated domains, including intervoter.com... and others. He
was quite rude, and indicated he had no desire to address the issue of
unsolicited bulk e-mail coming from his domains. I thanked him for his
time and indicated I would proceed with the recommendation."

This is a complete lie.

Not only was this "Project Manager" for the RBL rude, accusatory and threatening -- including threats to harm his business, his family, and the families of UDR's employees -- but she also shouted that this UDR executive was not allowed to prove to her that UDR already complied with the RBL's illegal and criminally enforced "rules" with which they blackmail ISPs and backbones.

The only reason MAPS has any modicum of support is that  the major ISPs and backbones don't want to spend the money necessary to match email bandwidth demands. The UDR executive also explained that her definition of "Spam" did not apply to UDR as they were only mailing to millions of opt-ins and subscribers. Ms. Thompson got less than twenty complaints out of millions of pieces of email sent during the period in question.

"Shortly thereafter, I received a call from Gene Gaudette, who
identified himself as a business partner [with UDR]. He did not want to
discuss the nomination, but wanted to speak to Paul Vixie. I told him
that would not be possible. He called back some time later and asked
again to speak to Paul, and I told him again that was not possible. This
time, he was willing to discuss the nomination and he indicated that he
would look into it if I forwarded him the nomination. I did so."

She did not forward anything save foolish and suspect comments from anti-Spam hardliners enlisted into UDR's opt-in for the sole purpose of then complaining. UDR believes that this is because Paul Vixie, mastermind and "eminence grease" of MAPS/RBL, knows that UDR has enlisted the FBI and the highest echelon of the Department of Justice to investigate his criminal activity.

"On Friday, June 9, I called [the] president of exit109.com. The mail in
the nomination came from and advertised sites on exit109' s network. I
told him that his client was sending unsolicited bulk e-mail and that
this needed to stop, and also that his clients were responding to abuse
complaints with threats and abuse. He said there were two sides to every
story and it wasn't as bad as it looked. I indicated that to avert a
listing, UDR needed to stop mailing to their list until it was
reconfirmed and cleaned, they needed to commit to a secure closed-loop
confirmation subscription system, and to commit to handling abuse
complaints promptly and professionally. He indicated he understood these
conditions, and he asked for time to talk to UDR. I agreed he should
contact me by noon PDT on June 12."

There are no such "advertised" sites on UDR's web holdings. Nor has she one shred of evidence to prove that UDR does. When she spoke to the UDR executive, she claimed to have 14 complaints -- out of millions of mailings. That could happen for any number of reasons -- including her own operatives having enroled in UDR's survey lists just to complain, a tactic that her allies often use.

"On June 12, I received no e-mail or phone call from [exit109's
president]. I did receive a phone call from Gene Gaudette, who asked
that I send specific terms to UDR."

She did not do so, of course. Instead, she thinks the world should stop for her. And she neglected to mention that the president of exit109 did in fact speak to her at his earliest opportunity.

"I told him that I'd contacted Mr. Zachok at exit109.com and his
provider could discuss those specific requirements with [UDR]."

...because she had NO intention of assisting UDR in "compliance" with Draconian dictates that have no force in law, are criminal in intent, and unconstitutional and un-American in nature.

"I asked Mr. Gaudette what actions he intended to take to prevent UBE
from being sent from his domain. He indicated that UDR already has a
proprietary closed-loop system in place, and he couldn't give details
about how it worked."

And that's completely true. To appear on a UDR opt-in list, a respondent must evidence to UDR through its websites (they own and manage dozens, including the secure pages on Ampol's web site) that he is interested in news, politics or issues, or wants to join a panel of respondents. Most people do -- because UDR awards prizes to participants for their taking the time to participate in surveys. UDR sells nothing to polling participants -- their clients are non-profit charitable and educational organizations.

"I asked if he had determined how the nominators got added to UDR's list
in the first place. He said UDR believed it was a case of fraud. I asked
for proof, and he could not give me any, since it was all proprietary
and they couldn't expos [sic]."

This is true. UDR believes MAPS/RBL and its mentor Paul Vixie got individuals to sign up for UDR panels and then allege that they did not do this. This is because the sociopathic Mr. Vixie is fearful that UDR may succeed in having him arrested and jailed for stealing millions of dollars in respondent surveys from us through his neofascist MAPS/RBL earlier this year.

"Mr. Gaudette said he believed that this was a revenge listing, since
UDR had just obtained a patent that would put MAPS out of business. I
told him that if he had a product that could end spam, I'd be very
pleased to be out of a job. I told him that I needed all the issues I
raised with Mr. Zachok to be resolved, or I would recommend the listing
at the close of business today, June 12."

Can you imagine?

"He said he could not get in touch with [exit109.com], so I repeated the
same conditions that I had conveyed to [exit109.com]. He said I had to mail
it to him, and I declined to do so. He became abusive and I terminated
the call."

Abusive? Mr. Gaudette laughed at that one as he told Ampol's editors that he had explained to Ms. Thompson that the RBL's strategy is the equivalent of shooting a postal carrier for delivering just one piece of "junk mail." UDR has filed 186 patent claims that would put Vixie, Thompson and their Spam Gestapo software out of business because no person could ever be tracked on the Internet again -- save by the U.S. Government for criminal investigation purposes. These patents protect people in UDR's SurfAssured portal from being identified by spammers in the first place.

One of our team, Liz Callahan -- who many of you know and love -- was berated by one of Vixie's RBL disciples. She finally had had it -- and after apologizing to the toady, she explained that if she were that person and had to wake up in the morning and look in the mirror, she'd slit her own throat.

Ms. Thompson had threatened to "blackhole" the secure server on which American Politics Journal houses its encrypted, secure pages along with a secondary non-secure server.

She lied -- this morning, MAPS blackholed the Atlantic Internet Technologies' main email system.

This, my friends, is the new Net Nazism in action -- a Star Chamber using coercion, blackmailing and racketeering in the name of their definition of "privacy." They deny you access to the identity of the accuser. They make a promise, abusively break it, and blackmail your ISP. They try to take down your strategic partners and force the people you have partnered with -- like our friends at Atlantic Internet Technologies -- to either go out of business or destroy your business.

Like Stalin and Hitler, they will pressure you and force you to turn on your family, friends and partners.

Including American Politics Journal.

Well, guess what, Mr. Vixie, Ms. Thompson and all you brownshirts in MAPSland?

We have a little message for you.

We're not going to accept your illegal strongarm tactics. Nor is UDR. You have just turned on the heat on your little fiefdom -- so don't forget to baste every few minutes as you cook your own goose.