ietf-asrg
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[Asrg] "Useful features"

2003-06-19 22:19:40
We should not sacrifice any email types or formats to kill spam.

We don't have to do that.  I propose merely that we encourage the blocking of 
"spam-friendly" features by default in E-mail coming from senders that haven't 
previously arranged to send a given recipient e-mail of that type.

Once they're known to the recipient, and the recipient agrees to accept bulkier 
and more "fully-featured" e-mail from that sender, no problem.

But one should NEVER send such stuff unannounced to recipients, since those 
recipients may not wish it, or may not be prepared to receive it.  

Rather than limit the types of email that we receive, 

We're only proposing limiting what can be sent from UNTRUSTED SENDERS that we 
HAVE NOT AUTHORIZED.

we should state that we will only receive email from (1) a server that can be 
verified as the one from where the email originated 

So the spam comes from a server that is 'legitimately' owned (today, maybe not 
tomorrow) by a spammer.  Can you say, "Musical servers", boys and girls?

...and (2) an individual or entity who has received authorization from me to 
send me email, which authorization can be verified upon receipt.

That's an 'ordinary' whitelist, which is problematical for companies which by 
the nature of their business are going to receive a large amount of 
communications from people they haven't heard from before.  
(ConsumerRelations(_at_)domain(_dot_)com for instance).  

By limiting the mime types, base64, html, etc., we limit a great deal of 
useful features.

But NONE OF THOSE need to be, nor should be, used in INITIAL communications 
with 
someone you haven't written to before.  And once you have, and 'need' to send 
bulky "pretty" mail, presumably you can negotiate that 'need' with the intended 
recipient so they open that window for you.

But the RECIPIENT needs to retain control over that.

Once the recipient agrees, there IS NO limitation to what you can send to them, 
unless THEY choose to leave that restriction in place for you (and they MUST 
maintain the right to do that).  [It IS *their* mailbox after all that you're 
consuming with your largely pointless bulk!]

Gordon Peterson                  http://personal.terabites.com/
1977-2002  Twenty-fifth anniversary year of Local Area Networking!
Support the Anti-SPAM Amendment!  Join at http://www.cauce.org/
12/19/98: Partisan Republicans scornfully ignore the voters they "represent".
12/09/00: the date the Republican Party took down democracy in America.



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