Re: False positives (was Re: [Asrg] Re: RMX Records)

[Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>]

> > >   - clients can claim to be anyone
> > 
> > that's not a bug, it's a desirable feature
> 
> I do not think that it is a desirable feature that anyone can claim to
> be anyone.  *Some* people may want anyone to be able to claim to be
> them.  From what I can tell, *most* people only want themselves to be
> able to claim to be them.  

1. an email address is not an identity.  it's just an identifier. it doesn't
have to have any purpose other than having a mailbox associated with it. 
also, an email address can be bound to any person or group or random
association of people.  finally, relatively few people have email addresses
that match their legal names with any precision. 

2. sending documents on other people's behalf is a widespread and
valuable practice.  secretaries regularly sign documents on behalf
of their bosses.  yes, they should do so only when granted the 
authority to do so - but we don't tend to have mechanisms in place
to prevent them from doing so.  (with a few exceptions - signature
stamps for payroll checks are likely to be tightly controlled)

> *Some* people want to be able to claim to be themselves from many different
> ISPs.
> 
> I suspect that *most* people wouldn't care or even notice if this
> attribute of SMTP disappeared,

If we only allowed the Internet to support features that most people cared
about, the only apps it would support would be the web and email.

Keith
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