From: Yakov Shafranovich <research(_at_)solidmatrix(_dot_)com>
Since the IETF is a standards organization, can both you and vsj tell us
in your opinion, if there is anything the IETF should or should not be
doing in the spam arena (changing existing standards, making new
standards, etc.)?
draft-crocker-spam-techconsider-02.txt listed some opportunities for
IETF documents. I vaguely recall they included:
- codifying common sense for blacklist operators
I thought ASRG time working on such a BCP, but it seems to have
gone underground.
- improved forms and formats for DSNs.
- improved mechanisms, forms, and formats for logging mail rejections.
- mechanisms for sharing white- and blacklists among MX servers
for a domain.
On the other hand, it would be distructive to let the IETF seriously
consider supporting claims of the unfettered right to send mail
regardless of the desires of mail targets and their duly appointed
agents including ISPs or of entitlements to real Internet access
at less than $50/month. That would further the ambitions of many
to convert the Internet into what PTTs and governments said we might
be allowed 20 years ago.
That the spam problem involves TCP/IP does not necessarily imply that
the IETF has a major role in dealing with the problem, any more than
the fact that guns contain metal implies that the American Society for
Testing and Materials (ASTM) has a major role in the search for world
peace. Regardless of the ambitions of individuals to "make a difference"
or become famous, the IETF should strive first and foremost to do no
harm outside its charter in primarily non-technical arenas such as the
fight against spam.
Vernon Schryver vjs(_at_)rhyolite(_dot_)com