The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Verizon email blockade - rebate offered

Europeans, Asians need not apply

Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery

Verizon is offering a cash rebate to net users who had messages blocked during a notorious period either side of Christmas 2004.

It's part of a tentative settlement to a pair of class action suits that arose from the blockade. The catch is it only applies to Verizon's own stateside internet customers. If you were sending a message from Europe or Asia, only to see it blocked by Verizon's over-aggressive filters, you're out of luck.

The blockade began on 22 December 2004, with Verizon blocking a range of filters from Europe and Asia. Many Register readers in the US were affected, as our daily newsletter was blacklisted in the blockade.

At one stage, a Verizon PR rep even advised his ISP customers to get on the phone.

"If it's really important you might want to make a phone call," Ells Edwards said.

But presumably not a Verizon cellphone, as Verizon's CEO admits they don't work very well indoors.

And the rebate won't cover the cost of too many transatlantic calls. Verizon has a site, which explains that its customers can claim up to $3.50 for each month affected between 1 December 2004 and 31 May 2005, up to a maximum of $21. ®

What you need to know about cloud backup

More from The Register

 breaking news
UK telcos chuck another £1m at online child abuse watchdog
Web enforcers IWF gain power to seek and destroy illegal content
 breaking news
Pttow! Ofcom kicks hams out of MoD bands
Geet off my land, you, you ... 'secondary user'
 breaking news
Now you can use your phone instead of your wallet at the ATM, too
Blimey, these little paper towels out of the vending machine are really expensive
 breaking news
UK.gov's £530m bumpkin broadband rollout: 'Train crash waiting to happen'
Whitehall whispers of damning watchdog report next month
Google launches broadband balloons, radio astronomy frets
A careless Loon could blind the square kilometre array
 breaking news
MySpace zaps millions of teens' tearful rants, causes wave of angst
'Your crappy redesign SUCKS, I wanna read my blogs' screech users
 breaking news
Microsoft Office 365 on iPhone NOW: No, we're not making this up
Word, Excel, Powerpoint for your pocket-stroker
Increased cell phone coverage tied to uptick in African violence
'Significantly and substantially increases the probability of violent conflict'
 breaking news