Re[2]: [Asrg] Re: Anti-spam laws do work, FYI. There's proof.

[Pete McNeil <madscientist at microneil.com>]

On Thursday, July 29, 2004, 4:13:42 PM, Barry wrote:


BS> On July 29, 2004 at 11:36 david at vex.net (David Maxwell) wrote:
 >> "Reputation systems don't stop spam because of forgery[%]; anti-forgery
 >> systems don't stop spam without a reputation system.  But put the two
 >> together and I can see it making a dent."

BS> All this is nice fun and games social engineering of dubious value.

BS> But what causes the spam problem we see is the massive and illegal
BS> hijacking of resources.

<snip/>

BS> It's about the ability (of spammers) to deliver mind-boggling amounts
BS> of content to (for argument's sake) hundreds of millions of people for
BS> almost no cost.

--- we want normal, well behaved netizens to be able to deliver their
content at almost no cost... so how do we separate the two kinds of
traffic, and how do we then deny these facilities to those who would
abuse the system. How do we make this an inescapable law of the
mechanism itself --- see below.

BS> That it's annoying, offensive, tiresome, etc is really beside the
BS> point.

BS> If it were hugely entertaining I think we'd still consider it a
BS> problem as its delivered.

BS> If you try to understand the distinction I'm making you might
BS> understand my exasperation with proposals such as SPF, etc.

This is a function of having an open network of individually
controlled systems. This is why I recommend the development of DSQP -
because it will plug the big hole that exists in a way that keeps the
control in the hands of the right people.

Right now, whether it's spam, network scans, worms or other malware,
there is no built-in mechanism that allows the recipient to defend
themselves, except for unplugging.

Build that mechanism into the Internet's infrastructure and all of
these problems can and will be mitigated.

Until then, the only thing we have that works at all is some filtering
mechanism at the receiving end... because whatever it is that's coming
that we don't want there is no current way to effectively stop it.

SPF and other similar mechanisms, as you point out, will only help
ultimately with filtering. That process needs to be driven up the
network toward the source of the abuse and the mechanism to do that
must become an integral part of the network.

My $0.02

_M



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