Stan says:

One thing to keep in mind here is that Gmail is free, and the old proverb about getting what you paid for applies here.

Michael says: even if it was paid service, the sheer scale would preclude any quick reaction for your otherwise mission critical email, and the terms of service would preclude any liability for your loss.

A thought just occured to me on the whole Qwest/GoDaddy (and whomever else EmailBattles finds) charge-for-spam fiasco.

Sooner or later, Qwest or GoDaddy will actually send someone a bill, that someone will claim they weren’t at fault, and the matter will wind up in court. Who is responsible?

These big companies will invariably try picking on someone small, like a consumer account. Someone will realize that a machine was infected with a spam-spewing zombie, but it will be difficult (and expensive) to explain to a judge or jury what a zombie actually is. And how did it get there?

Is this an argument that the computer, or its operating system (with all its built in security mechanisms - or lack thereof) lacks fitness for the purpose it was intended? Instead of just pointing fingers at the network and registrars, I’d suggest someone pay careful attention to software T&Cs as well.