A spam-fighting program maker once accused of spamming for businesses is now accused of trying to quash old criticisms of former practices that remain posted online.
Spam Arrest Chief Executive Brian Cartmell reportedly is asking several websites to remove old critiques on the grounds that people seeing them today might think the old practices are still being used. "Sometimes people cancel their subscriptions because they believe it's some sort of ongoing practice," Cartmell told reporters May 12.
Earlier in May, one such Spam Arrest request went to Web designer and editor Carl Bussjaeger, who received the communiqué through DoingFreedom.com, an online publication he helped edit and which features some of the old information.
"Please let me know if you might consider removing the link http://www.doingfreedom.com/nas/spamarrest.htm, as the information presented on it is really out of date, and the actions referenced have not been repeated in over two years," Bussjaeger said that Cartmell wrote in an exchange he shared with Internet journalist Declan McCullagh's Politech online journal and discussion newsletter.
"In a word: no," Bussjaeger's reply began before he explained the URL in question was a mirror on a server to which he no longer had access himself, but was mirrored to guarantee access to some of his old writings.
"Someone thinks that article is worth preserving, I suppose, since it is still up," Bussjaeger's reply continued. "I think it is worth preserving as well, which is why I keep an updated version on my own site. I believe www.archive.org has it permanently archived as well. So it's a little late to be retroactively editing reality."
Bussjaeger has maintained that Spam Arrest got caught spamming prospective users, lying about it, and offered an apology not easily accessible to victims.
Another published report said at least one website, SamSpade.org, did as Cartmell and Spam Arrest asked, with site administrator Steve Atkins saying they were satisfied with Spam Arrest's privacy policy changes.
