Exhibit 1: Rathbun Report
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Weekly Tonnage Reports for an AOL Account
by Michael Rathbun
(originally posted to SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM)
Legend:
"Pri" = Primary Screen Name
"Sec" = Secondary Screen Name
"profile" = A profile has been created which can be searched via the
AOL Member Directory
"PrefMail" = AOL's PreferredMail blocking status
"posts to Usenet" = Number of postings placed on USENET newsgroups
"UBE count" = Amound of Unsolicited Bulk E-mail (a/k/a UCE)
"last post" = date of the last USENET posting (used to gauge time delay
between postings and increases in UCE)
===================
Date: Fri Mar 14 21:26:49 1997
From: mdr@cyberramp.net (Michael Rathbun)
To: SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: This week's tonnage report for an AOL account
In seven days, six hours and 58 minutes my AOL trawler account accumulated
a total of 49 pieces of UBE and zero legitimate email. It required a flash
session of just under ten minutes to collect them (telnet). For those
speculating on the dominant approach to driftnetting the AOL customer base,
the following breakdown:
profile PrefMail posts to Usenet UBE count last post
Pri no ON 11 29 21 Nov 96
Sec no OFF 12 4 13 Dec 96
Sec no OFF 7 0 3 Jan 97
Sec no OFF 3 0 23 Dec 96
Sec yes OFF 17 16 12 Feb 97
Executive summary: the noise level for the primary name is fierce no
matter what. I have turned Preferred Mail off for the next week to see
what the unfiltered noise level looks like.
Out of perverse obsessiveness, I am going to start graphing UBE volume
against Usenet activity using the 3 no-profile secondary names, and leave
the primary and profiled secondary names alone. If the data look
interesting enough, I will put up a summary on a web page.
===================
Date: Sat Mar 22 09:27:22 1997
From: mdr@cyberramp.net (Michael Rathbun)
To: SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: This week's tonnage report for an AOL account
In seven days, fourteen hours and nine minutes my AOL trawler account
accumulated a total of 62 pieces of UBE and zero legitimate email.
profile PrefMail posts to Usenet UBE count last post
Pri no OFF 11 40 21 Nov 96
Sec no OFF 12 8 13 Dec 96
Sec no OFF 7 4 3 Jan 97
Sec no OFF 3 0 23 Dec 96
Sec yes OFF 17 10 12 Feb 97
Executive summary: turning PreferredMail off on the primary screen name
results in a ~45% increase in spammage.
===================
Date: Fri Mar 28 22:27:20 1997
From: mdr@cyberramp.net (Michael Rathbun)
To: SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: This week's tonnage report for an AOL account
In six days, eleven hours and forty-one minutes my AOL trawler account
accumulated a total of 88 pieces of UBE and zero legitimate email.
profile PrefMail posts to Usenet UBE count last post
Pri no OFF 11 53 21 Nov 96
Sec no OFF 12 11 13 Dec 96
Sec no OFF 7 3 3 Jan 97
Sec no OFF 3 0 23 Dec 96
Sec yes OFF 17 21 12 Feb 97
Executive summary: the trend is not encouraging (up 41% from last week).
At this rate of growth, within nine weeks, AOL will require most of the
rotating magnetic storage devices on Earth to hold UBE for its customers.
This week's bilge discharge contains several copies of the touching "Don't
Destroy the Internet!" plea from the public-spirited vendors of
Floodgate(tm), wherein they excoriate "stealth mailers" as unlawful
to use without payment to an ISP [!].
===================
Date: Fri Apr 04 13:38:20 1997
From: mdr@cyberramp.net (Michael Rathbun)
To: SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: This week's tonnage report for an AOL account
In six days, fifteen hours and thirty-six minutes my AOL trawler account
accumulated a total of 102 pieces of UBE and one (1!) legitimate email.
profile PrefMail posts to Usenet UBE count last post
Pri no OFF 11 56 21 Nov 96
Sec no OFF 12 16 13 Dec 96
Sec no OFF 11 11 31 Mar 97
Sec no OFF 3 0 23 Dec 96
Sec yes OFF 17 20 12 Feb 97
Executive summary: most of the increase in the total count this week
(102, up from 88) may be attributed to one of the names having been
freshly "harvested" after a group of 4 trawler posts on Monday. The
graphs will probably not be updated until tomorrow.
http://rabendary.tesp.com/UBERate.htm
===================
Date: Sat Apr 12 13:31:17 1997
From: mdr@cyberramp.net (Michael Rathbun)
To: SPAM-L@PEACH.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: This week's tonnage report for an AOL account
In seven days, five hours and eleven minutes my AOL trawler account
accumulated a total of 63 pieces of UBE and 0.5 legitimate email.
profile PrefMail posts to Usenet UBE count last post
Pri no OFF 11 34 21 Nov 96
Sec no OFF 12 6 13 Dec 96
Sec no OFF 11 12 31 Mar 97
Sec no OFF 3 0* 23 Dec 96
Sec yes OFF 17 11 12 Feb 97
Executive summary: a precipitous decline from last week's total; perhaps
the famed "email brownout" took its toll. I will know more when I update
the graphs (real work keeps getting in the way, and I haven't finished the
tool to automate the process).
* this account received one email: a mailer-daemon notification that a
"remove" message to cyberpromo could not be delivered. Taking a CP bolus
that had plopped into one account, I did the "reply and type 'remove'"
procedure from another account that had never received anything from then.
Apparently Mr Wallace knew by occult means that I was inviting him to
begin mailing to a mule account, and crashed his remover:
>The original message was received at Fri, 4 Apr 1997 16:41:46 -0400 (EDT)
>from root@localhost
>
> ----- The following addresses have delivery notifications -----
>cyberout@pleaseread.com (unrecoverable error)
>
> ----- Transcript of session follows -----
>cyberout@pleaseread.com... Deferred: Connection timed out with
> pleaseread.com.
>Message could not be delivered for 3 days
>Message will be deleted from queue
>
> ----- Original message follows -----
>
>Return-Path: ********@aol.com
>Received: (from root@localhost)
> by emout16.mail.aol.com (8.7.6/8.7.3/AOL-2.0.0)
> id QAA08099;
> Fri, 4 Apr 1997 16:41:46 -0500 (EST)
>Date: Fri, 4 Apr 1997 16:41:46 -0500 (EST)
>From: ********@aol.com
>Message-ID: <970404164143_-1971181182@emout16.mail.aol.com>
>To: cyberout@pleaseread.com
>cc: ********@****.com
>Subject: remove