At 18:07 22-11-2008, mathew wrote:
So, to briefly summarize your objections and comment on them...
1. There's no way to set up a micropayment system that can't be hacked around.
Evidence? That's a pretty strong assertion, given that we have
systems like SSL in place.
That doesn't prevent click fraud.
1.b. Bad guys will induce lots of people to e-mail them so they can
collect the payments.
Yeah, right. Just like everyone currently replies to spam messages
they get? I'm sure they'll be even more likely to reply when it
might cost them money.
There is a phishing industry.
1.c. Bad guys will forge mail purporting to be from your friends.
And? It doesn't matter if they forge the identity, if they still
have to pay. It's the paying that makes the spamming uneconomical,
not the verification of identity. But if this really became a
problem, smart friends would start using S/MIME.
S/MIME has been around for some time. Although identity verification
is a problem, there still isn't significant adoption of S/MIME.
3. It'll kill e-mail from countries with non-convertible currencies.
So anyone who cares about hearing from those countries can set up
filters on their inbox. And the rest of us, including people like me
who currently spam-filter everything from those countries anyway,
can ignore that issue.
In my opinion, a document that uses such an argument won't make it
through the Standards process.
Any proposal that seeks to replace the existing email system will
only gain adoption if it provides a significant incentive for the
user base to switch to it. The idea that solving the spam problem is
the only inducement needed fails to take into account why some people
still use email even though most of the messages are "unwanted".
Please don't read my comments about your arguments as saying that
they don't hold. They may likely be valid for some sections of the
user base who will be induced to switch to the system you are
advocating. If you can build such a system and sell it, it may turn
into a successful venture.
Regards,
-sm
_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
Asrg(_at_)irtf(_dot_)org
https://www.irtf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg