I saw a very nice tool
http://tmda.net
It spools the e-mail and ask the sender to acknowledge he sent the
e-mail. It is only after the acknowldegement is received that the e-mail
is finally distributed.
I think this system coupled with other anti-spam techniques (like
open-relays blockers,...) is very effective.
Finally if mail servers were not open relays out of the box, we would be
in a better world...
Franck Martin
Network and Database Development Officer
SOPAC South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission
Fiji
E-mail: franck(_at_)sopac(_dot_)org <mailto:franck(_at_)sopac(_dot_)org>
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-----Original Message-----
From: Christian Huitema [mailto:huitema(_at_)windows(_dot_)microsoft(_dot_)com]
Sent: Wednesday, 14 August 2002 2:20
To: Perry E. Metzger; Keith Moore
Cc: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: RE: Why spam is a problem.
Keith Moore <moore(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu> writes:
it's much more difficult to filter spam in general. one person's
spam
might be another person's life-changing investment opportunity...
I understand the "free speech!" attitude and such, but unfortunately
it isn't reasonable. They're making me pay for their free speech.
The free speech of the spammers is not really the issue. The real
problem is, devising a system that still let's third parties send you
e-mail, even if you have never met them before. You want to curb down
the mass mailing, you don't want to stop "unsolicited mail".
There are clearly two approaches. One is to pass laws outlawing spam. It
may be useful, but usefulness is limited. I live in Washington State,
where a state law actually prohibits spam. Does not seem to have much
practical impact so far.
The other approach is technical. As Bob Braden says, this is what the
IETF does, so that what we should look at. We all have ideas -- request
authentication of messages, run a distributed system that detects and
block spam as soon as a campaign starts, etc. My favorite would be to
automatically challenge the sender of messages -- send a message back,
"do you really want me to read that", with a nonce of some kind. But,
hey, we also know that there is an escalation game going on, and that
there will be some form of countermeasures... So we better find a really
good solution!
-- Christian Huitema
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