It was Greenlight's glitch, not revenge

It turns out that there was nothing nefarious in the rejection of emails from Greenlight subscribers by Time Warner email servers. In an earlier blog post, I suggested that blocking email from municipal broadband customers would be a perfect way for Time Warner and its commercial allies to get back at cities that offer broadband.

But that's not how it went. After querying Time Warner, Greenlight and a contact at city hall, I received a call from an official with Greenlight. The problem originated with Greenlight servers. A glitch on the Greenlight server made receiving email servers, including Time Warner's, think that the Greenlight server was generating huge amounts of spam. As a defensive maneuver, the receiving servers blocked email from Greenlight. The glitch has been fixed, and Greenlight email is back in the good graces of the receiving email servers.

But this should be a lesson for Internet service providers: Having email kick back for no apparent reason will not endear the service provider to subscribers. The frustration is almost enough to drive you back to the U.S. Postal Service.