ietf-mxcomp
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RE: "If you believe that the SPF concept is fundamentally flawed, please subscribe at http: //www.imc.org/ietf-mxcomp/"

2005-05-26 05:51:25

Please see:

http://www.virusbtn.com/articles/spambulletin/asrg/2004/10_4.xml

Regards,
Damon Sauer



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ietf-mxcomp(_at_)mail(_dot_)imc(_dot_)org 
[mailto:owner-ietf-mxcomp(_at_)mail(_dot_)imc(_dot_)org] On Behalf Of John 
Levine
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 10:15 PM
To: ietf-mxcomp(_at_)imc(_dot_)org
Cc: julian(_at_)mehnle(_dot_)net
Subject: Re: "If you believe that the SPF concept is 
fundamentally flawed, please subscribe at http: 
//www.imc.org/ietf-mxcomp/"



Contrary to the promotions, SPF will not stop spam.

Who is promoting SPF as an anti-spam solution?  I'd really like to 
know.

Let's take a look at http://spf.pobox.org.  Hey, look what it says:

  SPF is ushering in a new set of anti-spam systems, where email is
  spam unless proven otherwise.

If history is any guide, some SPF fan will write back in a 
huff and say "That doesn't say SPF is an anti-spam solution!  
It just says that SPF is holding a flashlight and will lead 
the actual anti-spam solutions to their seats!"

This kind of disingenuous doubletalk has characterized SPF 
advocacy since its beginning, and is one of the many reasons 
that the mainstream e-mail tech community holds SPF in 
disdain.  That along with its egregious design mistakes and 
its irreparably enormous error rate, of course.

SPF can help whitelist mail from fixed source senders you 
already know.  That's what AOL uses it for, and it's an 
adequate if overly complex means to that end.  If the SPF 
crowd promoted it for that purpose, I don't think anyone 
would have a problem with it.  But they don't and the smoke 
long ago became unbreathable.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl(_at_)iecc(_dot_)com, Primary Perpetrator of "The 
Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, 
http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor "A book is a > sneeze." - E.B. 
White, on the writing of Charlotte's Web



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