Accountability has to be addressed at the source. It is not the fault of the
Internet Service Provider that a malicious user made a personal decision to
send spam. However, it is the responsibility of every Internet Service Provider
to ban spammers from using their services and to not allow easy ways for users
to signup for those services. Maybe Internet Service Providers should even be
given the right to press charges against such malicious users by law.
"Bill Cunningham" <billcu(_at_)citynet(_dot_)net> 08/16/02 12:56PM >>>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Bisaillon"
<Brian(_dot_)Bisaillon(_at_)mbs(_dot_)gov(_dot_)on(_dot_)ca>
To: <billcu(_at_)citynet(_dot_)net>
Cc: <ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 10:52 AM
Subject: Re: Why Spam is a problem
I don't see how filtering messages helps with bandwidth issues associated
with spam. You still have to receive spam before you can filter it out and
this is what uses up bandwidth. Spam needs to be stopped at the source
before it even enters a receiving network. That source is the service
provider and the fact is that those service providers don't take
accountability for the service they provide. Electronic mail is an
ungoverned medium and there is no accountability built-in and this is what
promotes spam. I don't understand how laws can help when systems on the
Internet cross many different jurisdictions accross the world. Also,
changing the protocol or adding extensions results in an enormous amount of
infrastructure change. Keep in mind, a "no soliciting" extension may not be
a solution in another country where they have not adopted any laws to back
it up.
The Internet is an open and interoperable medium. You can't change the
design because it's too late. The fact remains that user A can still send a
message to user B and that user B has to receive that message before he/she
can filter it out unless user B's network blocked out user A's network to
begin with. Otherwise, there would have to be some way that spam messages
would have never been sent from user A in the first place. So the question
is how do you prevent spam before it happens?
So the responsibility should be placed on lower tier ISPs, what about the
main backbone like MAES.