On Sat, 7 Jun 2003, at 13:57 [=GMT-0700], Spencer Dawkins wrote:
Disclaimer: there are people who know more about e-mail than I
do, and some of them are on this list.
I know absolutely nothing more than the bare minimum needed to keep
sendmail running (so far). That is no reason to stop reading. If my
idea has some merit, you can stop the spam topic on this list.
Why do people not fill my snail mailbox with junk letters, leaflets?
Because (1) it costs money to print a leaflet and get it distributed.
Also (2) there are (where I live) laws and political deals with
advertizers, that make it a bad idea to use addresses from cd-roms, or
just deliver leaflets to all addresses (direct distribution). If my
mailbox says "NO" I should not get them. And the great thing is, the
Dutch police and justice system can get at those who don't play by the
rules.(*)
Spam costs nothing. Spam comes from all corners of the world, where
the Dutch police doesn't dare to go. And even if they would the Dutch
judges would say it is without their jurisduction. Spam can only be
fought through a worldwide police and justice system. This cannot by
achieved by an RFC. Send this problem to ICANN.
(*) I know that in theory people could evade being prosecuted in
Holland by sending advertizing letters, using illegal address
databases from Tuvalu and contact addresses for themselves in Libya.
But this doesn't happen.