Stupid Statement Watch: Umm, That’s Not True

RPost, a company that offers proof-of-receipt technology for e-mail, is suing Goodmail, claiming the e-mail certification firm is infringing on RPost’s patents.

While the merits of RPost’s patent-infringement claims will be up to the two parties and/or a judge to decide, the statement announcing the suit contained one wildly inaccurate claim.

“Basically Goodmail started up as a way for marketers to buy their way past the spam filters of cooperating ISP’s” said Zafar Khan, RPost CEO. “Like many people in the industry, we didn’t like that because it essentially creates a two-tiered e-mail system: one for paying spammers and another for everybody else. But if e-mail providers want to let corporate spammers into their user’s mailboxes, that is between them and their users.”

Sigh. Didn’t we go over this ad nauseum, like, three years ago?

Goodmail is not a way for marketers to buy their way past ISPs’ spam filters. In order to get Goodmail certified, marketers must adhere to certain best practices, among which are avoiding spamming.

How strictly Goodmail enforces its non-spamming policy is known only to Goodmail, its clients and its ISP partners. But to say Goodmail creates a two-tiered system, one for paying spammers and one for everybody else, is ridiculous.