Just ran across a SlashDot story
(http://slashdot.org/articles/03/06/24/2148248.shtml) announcing a website
(http://www.the-carrot-and-the-stick.com/) which acts as a whitelist of IPs
of businesses that promise not to send spam.
From the front page:
"We offer an alternative to simply watching and waiting for the eventual
extinction of the Internet. We offer a list of IP Addresses for businesses
that abide by Accepted Standards of Conduct for the Online Business and
Accepted Best Practices Online Email Marketing. "
From their charter (http://www.the-carrot-and-the-stick.com/charter/):
--snip--
Our mission is, simply put. To keep email a viable tool for one to one
communication between individuals and businesses, individuals and
individuals and finally between businesses to businesses.
We will accomplish this daunting task by understanding just how important
email is to the World Wide Web.
Electronic Mail is the lifeblood of the World Wide Web. Currently this
lifeblood is plagued by the disease of spam almost to where we can see the
point of extinction of the Internet as we now know it in the not to distant
future.
The Carrot and the Stick Inc., brings together a variety of talented
individuals to keep Electronic Mail a usable method of communication for
both the Business Community and the Home User.
The Carrot and the Stick Inc., will provide the needed parameters for the
Bulk Mail Industry to follow by defining what spam is and what is more
important. What is not spam by outlining Best Practices for the bulk mail
industry. By doing this we will help the Bulk Mail Industry to be more
profitable while making the overall online experience for the end user more
enjoyable.
The Carrot, if you will is a list of Internet Protocol Addresses assigned
to Bulk Mail Operators, Internet Service Providers and the General Business
Community that adhere to the accepted Internet Standards for mailing list
management. These standards have been the accepted Best Practices for list
management for the last six or seven years.
Further, these members will follow our standards for online business
conduct. These standards have been a part of the RFC standards for a very
long time.
Their inclusion into the white list will allow legitimate Bulk Mail
Operators to send their communications unimpeded to their list of
subscribers. If for some reason their communications are refused The Carrot
and the Stick Inc., will mediate between the sender and the recipient's
provider to find out what the problem is. This will provide a venue for the
sender and the Service Provider to facilitate a remedy for this situation.
This is something that is not currently available on any sort of large scale.
The obvious direct affect of a Provider using this white list will be their
ability to be more aggressive in their filtering with far fewer false
positives. While this will not directly affect the volume of spam being
sent this will directly affect the volume of spam being received by the end
user. This will be a very important selling point to any Internet Service
Provider.
In using, the same technique used to create and distribute a Black List you
ensure the technology is already in place. The Internet Protocol Address of
a Bulk Mail Operator can not be forged or otherwise altered to benefit
unscrupulous individuals or to implicate the Bulk Mail Operator. These are
usually static and there fore a very good way to ensure delivery of
Electronic Mail.
The use of a White listing of Internet Protocol Addresses will preclude the
possibility of fraud and/or forgery. This type of white listing is
preferable to the of adding to the X-headers some riddle or sending mail
through our servers instead of their own server. This would also mean the
Bulk Mailer would not be limited to just the one mailing. Instead, because
all their Internet Protocol Addresses are white listed means they can
contact their list at any given time.
The Stick, if you will be a Black Listing of their Internet Protocol
Addresses and legal action for damage to reputation for only those that
abuse the White List by using it to spam. This should discourage abuse by
any intelligent individuals.
---snip---
_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
Asrg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg