Non-Availablity of Website... AOL ?

[Cyber Admin]

Yesterday, website was not available because the form available as "Refer-A-Friend" (removed now) was used by some persons, who sent out the invitation to some person, say X. X was using AOL ISP in US, and he marked the email as SPAM. The said information was send to the Web Hosting company by AOL, who in turn without any communication blocked the account

Matter was clarified and the site restored...

But the issue remains, as SPAM laws are getting strict in US, it is too difficult to deal with US Citizens, who knows they may by mistake even mark the email as SPAM and you may loose out the Web Hosting Account. So we are forced to lay down as a rule that no member registered here from USA IP address will be sent any Newsletter or any other email from this website

They can check the newsletter online every month at http://www.cyberlawtimes.com/newsletter.html

More about the AOL here
AOL Blocking 95% of all Newsletters? - www.webmasterworld.com/forum9/6827.htm

"23/8/5 After endless trouble with my own hosting provider misclassifying me as a spammer....  Finally, if AOL don't respond, all I can suggest is you switch ISPs, or use a reputable webmail host for subscriptions, such as gmail.com."

"AOL's willingness to trust any of their own users who mark mail as spam, rather than actually scan the content and see it isn't." 
 http://www.bowlie.com/forum/announcements/24801-aol-someone-clicking-spam-argh-bowlie-and-aol-email-addresses-being-banned.html

AOL - Decisions and Litigation: http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/index.html

[rajiv]

This is a serious matter... How can anyone be so stupid as to block a website just because someone has reported it as promoting spam??

[Cyber Admin]

Beacuse Hosting is provided  by an American company, where what we call exists CAN SPAM Act, so sending Spam is offence there!
And the company can get into trouble... thats why they take extra precautions and innocent get trapped too.

Last time, some Blogs at our servers were not up-to-date, and the security hole was exploited to send emails by hacker, so the site was blocked for few hours till the time they were contacted... 

Though still there need to be a proper method of recognizing what is or what is not as Spam... otherwise I think small Web Hosting Companies will have to shut down in long run because of companies like AOL, who are irresponsive to such complaints

[rajiv]

But how can they be so naive to block the site without asking for reasons??? And this coming from a country that is the champion of Rule of Law!!! Isn't it a mockery of Principle of Natural Justice of fair and proper hearing???  That's conviction without trial!!

[Cyber Admin]

'Coz Indian Jurisdiction cannot reach them, thats why an Unfair Treatment. And we have to rely upon US servers only, because of better quality! May look for alternative after some time

[Meenu]

Indeed that totally  unresponsive work.......how can they block a genuine web site which itself is a cause against cyber crime,,without  giving chance of hearing............i kept trying to login & it was saying that site under maintenance  ...

bit shocking there...that it was blocked due spam warning

the international & national cyber laws all have one flaw in it that is-jurisdiction
All the fight over cyber crime goes in vain over issues of jurisdiction.
thats stupidity they are not able to block the real spam culprits & here they are blocking a fairly working website.
U.S is spam capital of world.........although they are  strictly trying to control the menace of spam thru stringent laws & technology but that doesn't mean they act arbitrarily.