Challenge Response Company Tells Marketers How To Get Around Challenge Response

from the doesn't-that-defeat-the-point? dept

Remember Mailblocks? The me-too challenge-response company that based their entire strategy on having patents on the idea of "challenge-response" (something for which there has been a ton of prior art)? Well, now that the courts have pretty much told them that their their patents aren't likely to withstand scrutiny, they're taking on a new tactic: teaching email marketers how to get around their own challenge-response system. That certainly wouldn't make me any more likely to sign up - though, I already have problems with challenge-response systems (basically, they default to calling everything spam - meaning that way too much legitimate email gets "flagged"). Furthermore, the article explains that Mailblocks tells people to publicly use an email address that routes around challenge-response. If they're offering their own customers a separate email address that specifically doesn't do what the customer has paid them to do, doesn't that suggest their system has a problem?

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