It happens, and it's a big problem that for the most part can't be
resolved by blacklisting.
Only for values of "can't" that approximate "could if we felt strongly
enough about it to bite that particular bullet, but we don't".
Widespread blacklisting _would_ solve it. If gmail couldn't get their
mail to (say) 75% of (the rest of) the Internet because they were
spewing spam, you can bet they would shape up pronto.
The problem is that stopping spam over the long term is, for most
receivers, a lower priority than getting ham through in the immediate
term (even if it means mixing spam in with it). It's only fringe
nutcases (like me) who are willing to refuse to tolerate spam spewing
even at the cost of blocking ham, and people and organizations willing
to put a lot of resources into doing accurate filtering (like Nortel,
in the person of Chris) that aren't participating....
As understandable as it is, that kind of readiness to let the whole
system slide down the tubes in the long term for the sake of
superficial functionality in the immediate term is in large part
responsible for our being in this state at all. It feels sorta like a
Prisoner's Dilemma crossed with a tragedy of the commons, with a
time-scale component thrown in to keep things interesting.
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