Concentration and centralization (was Free software during wartime)

Posted Mar 23, 2023 18:49 UTC (Thu) by apoelstra (subscriber, #75205)
In reply to: Concentration and centralization (was Free software during wartime) by dskoll
Parent article: Free software during wartime

Even this can be quite difficult. See this article a friend of mine wrote last year about getting blacklisted in opaque ways not only from email servers (which I think anyone who has run a home mail server is familiar with) but also from hosting providers (also fairly common) and then even through DNS and from Chrome.

https://blog.sia.tech/the-worrying-depth-and-scope-of-cen...

Personally, I live in the United States as an immigrant, which means that I am beholden to its laws (and some of which, such as "crimes of moral turpitude", I cannot break without potentially endangering my immigration status; it is not obvious to me whether DMCA violations or "computer fraud" type crimes fall under this umbrella). So I am often limited, basically to political action and not much else, in how much I can directly challenge such systems. I do run my own mailserver and webserver since these are clearly 1st-amendment-protected activities, though I don't run any services where 3rd parties can post content I might be obligated to vet.

So I agree with the GP that it "seems strange" that in the rest of the world, there is less interest in asserting sovereignty in such areas, especially by nation-states who presumably aren't bound by the sort of human-level fears that we are.

Concentration and centralization (was Free software during wartime)

Posted Mar 23, 2023 19:35 UTC (Thu) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] (4 responses)

Yep, that's a problem. I seem to have lucked out with my email. I use DKIM and SPF, and have had the same IP for more than a decade, so its reputation is reasonable and my mail gets through.

But Google and MSFT have way too much power. If they decide they don't like you, they can essentially cut you off from being able to usefully use email unless you go with their platform or another large platform that has their (temporary?) blessing.

Concentration and centralization (was Free software during wartime)

Posted Mar 23, 2023 23:07 UTC (Thu) by rgmoore (✭ supporter ✭, #75) [Link]

It's especially bad because so many places that used to host their own email have now outsourced it. Every decent-sized company and university used to run its own server, which meant the larger players like Google and Microsoft had to have policies that respected self-hosted email. As the number of those servers gets smaller and smaller, it's easier for the behemoths to be overbearing. They actually benefit from policies that make it harder to host your own server, since that will push more users to outsource to them. It's classic monopolitic behavior.

Concentration and centralization (was Free software during wartime)

Posted Mar 24, 2023 0:48 UTC (Fri) by gerdesj (subscriber, #5446) [Link] (2 responses)

"I use DKIM and SPF"

Well, let's start with the basics: (E)HELO matches DNS and A/AAAA <-> PTR. The last one is the tricky one for most people.

PTR records "belong" to ISPs. It's similar to the snag that buggers up nice things like ENUM. The various bits of the ENUM registry "belong" to the likes of Nominet, who - to put it bluntly - do not have your or my best interests at heart.

Large bits of internet freedom were walled off pretty early on, often to no real protest. Who on earth would want telephony to be as simple and free as email? It's going to take a while for Google MS and co to close off email in the same way as ENUM was screwed from day one. The standard meme on HN is that email is fucked already despite the occasional protestation from holdouts like me. Hereabouts is little better ... but better. The world of email can't be allowed to degenerate into hyper dodgies plus Mail(pig/spam/numpty/gun/etc) and a fringe of 'bots.

Remember you can relay email if you are careful. If your IP is considered a bit shady then relay and fix up SPF accordingly. If your domain is dodgy, then start again and take a long hard look at what you are trying to do. Back to the IP - pick your relay carefully! Don't forget IPv6 is a thing.

Concentration and centralization (was Free software during wartime)

Posted Mar 24, 2023 1:26 UTC (Fri) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

> It's going to take a while for Google MS and co to close off email in the same way as ENUM was screwed from day one.

Please, don't exaggerate. There are plenty of independent e-mail providers like Fastmail.fm or Protonmail. Many companies run in-house email servers. It's more difficult to run an email server at home, but it's perfectly doable for even a mid-size company.

Concentration and centralization (was Free software during wartime)

Posted Mar 27, 2023 12:34 UTC (Mon) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

My provider lets me set the PTR record for my IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, so that's a non-issue for me. Don't use providers that don't offer that service.

Concentration and centralization (was Free software during wartime)

Posted Mar 24, 2023 4:06 UTC (Fri) by ttuttle (subscriber, #51118) [Link]

That's kind of apples and oranges. This wasn't their personal website and email that got that much attention and censorship. They were hosting, from what I can tell, a gateway to a distributed storage system -- basically a cross-protocol open proxy.