German law 303a (was Re: Spamassassin not catching spam (Follow-up))

["David F. Skoll" <df...@roaringpenguin.com>]

I find this discussion intriguing.  The German law cited earlier also
forbids you from changing data (original German word "verändert" ---
did I get that right?)

It seems to me this could make subject tagging illegal.  In fact, a rigid
interpretation could make SMTP illegal since you add a Received: header
at each hop, and that's certainly modifying the data being transmitted.

I believe this is a case of non-technical legislators completely failing
to forsee the logical consequences of their law. :)

Regards,

David.

Re: German law 303a (was Re: Spamassassin not catching spam (Follow-up))

[Reindl Harald <h....@thelounge.net>]

Am 26.03.2015 um 16:39 schrieb David F. Skoll:
> I find this discussion intriguing.  The German law cited earlier also
> forbids you from changing data (original German word "verändert" ---
> did I get that right?)
>
> It seems to me this could make subject tagging illegal.  In fact, a rigid
> interpretation could make SMTP illegal since you add a Received: header
> at each hop, and that's certainly modifying the data being transmitted.
>
> I believe this is a case of non-technical legislators completely failing
> to forsee the logical consequences of their law. :)

that may all be true and like won't matter most of the time

it starts to matter if you silent discard a important message and some 
large party with a good laywer pretends he lost xxx $ money because of 
the not happened resend or contact over a dfiierent medium in the 
assumption the mail was delivered

yes i am aware that one could pretend not got a mail anyways, but in 
that case you can prove at least the delivery to the mailbox with your 
logs, if your last log entry is "discarded" you are out of luck

Re: German law 303a (was Re: Spamassassin not catching spam (Follow-up))

[Robert Schetterer <rs...@sys4.de>]

Am 26.03.2015 um 16:39 schrieb David F. Skoll:
> I find this discussion intriguing.  The German law cited earlier also
> forbids you from changing data (original German word "verändert" ---
> did I get that right?)
> 
> It seems to me this could make subject tagging illegal.  In fact, a rigid
> interpretation could make SMTP illegal since you add a Received: header
> at each hop, and that's certainly modifying the data being transmitted.
> 
> I believe this is a case of non-technical legislators completely failing
> to forsee the logical consequences of their law. :)
> 
> Regards,
> 
> David.
> 

Common legal accepted practice is
silent discard mail is forbidden, tagging mail is allowed
reject mail is allowed anyway, exception is virus mail as averting of a
danger. If its your personal mail you can do what you want.
As mail provider you may get contracted to filter. But be sure to have
good legal advice if your filter does silent discard. Thats best
practice for over 10 years now.

And yes laws may miracle included everywhere, there are tons of them in
the US i will never understand too *g


Best Regards
MfG Robert Schetterer

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