Acceptable behaviour

So farewell Alan Ralsky; not lamented in the slightest.

Imagine a shoplifter who gets sued and settles with the shop on the understanding that he doesn't steal from their store again. Sounds ridiculous but that's exactly what suspected spammer Ralsky did with Verizon in 2002.

Verizon dropped the ball on this one. They could have shut him down there and then and they bottled it as far as I can see. Now you can argue that a company has a duty solely to its shareholders - indeed it's the law - but there's a wider responsibility here.

If a company is prepared to sacrifice its customers' time rather than taking a stand for them, I'd think about using another provider.