On Sat, 2008-07-26 at 00:05 +0300, Ariel Biener wrote: > 1. SPAM is here to stay, mostly due to human nature. For people who want to > sell something, this is an easy and cheap way to get more clients. This is > from the human psychology/sociology point of view
Asking myself whether it would have been to snip spam at its bud, by making domain registrars and ISPs more diligent about eliminating spam, my answer is that in the long range it was good that they were not strict. The reason is that not having to deal with spam would have left the networks and applications more vulnerable to a well-timed spam attach, which is bound to occur. > 2. SPAM is here to stay, from a technical point of view, due to the fact that > SMTP (and the following RFCs that enhance it) were not designed to deal > with sender authenticity. In fact, I believe that up to this day, an RFC > compliant mail system is required to accept the following: > MAIL FROM:<> The following developments have the potential of changing the above situation: a. Massive switching of PC users from MS-Windows to a more secure OS, removing them out of zombie networks. b. New E-mail protocols, which are designed to prevent spam. Those protocols would supplant and eventually replace the existing ones. c. Legal developments making domain registrars legally liable to the actions of domains registered by them - with possibility of getting off the hook by verifying the identity and addresses of the applicants. > 7. I do believe that some people on this list, while they have a theoretical > point of view on how things should operate, lack the understanding of > how things really turn out to be in the real world of ISP operations. > Forgetting that the ISPs first, and foremost interest is to make money > and make their shareholders happy is a fatal error, on the part of > theoreticians. That however doesn't mean that everything ISPs do is > acceptable, and sometimes very far from it. A balanced view however, > that understands both the theory, and the practice is needed to be able > to solve problems in the real ISP world. Is it possible to set up non-profit ISPs? How about mesh networks, based say upon WiFi and packet forwarding (old Usenet style)? -- 42 is the answer to everything. Food is the answer to everything except obesity. My own blog is at http://www.zak.co.il/tddpirate/ My opinions, as expressed in this E-mail message, are mine alone. They do not represent the official policy of any organization with which I may be affiliated in any way. WARNING TO SPAMMERS: at http://www.zak.co.il/spamwarning.html ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
