Subject: Re: [Asrg] 3. Requirements - Non Spam must go through

From: "John Fenley" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 13:32:49 -0600

From: "Yakov Shafranovich" <[email-masked]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 10:42 PM
>Going back to the original question 
>(https://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/working-groups/asrg/current/msg06391.html):
>
>"Any measure for stopping spam must ensure that all non-spam messages reach 
>their intended recipients."
>
>Am I correct in assuming that the overall opinion of the group seems to be 
>that this statement cannot be part of the requirements?

I believe that systems for sorting/blocking/handling email are inherently a 
proposed defenition of what spam is. They have their own defenitions of what 
spam is because of what they block. therefore in that context any system is 
self consistent in what it percieves to be spam, and what it blocks. If a 
filter does it's best, and the mechanism for filtering is known, then i feel 
it would be compliant with the statement above.

Thus when you choose a system to block/filter mail you should ensure that 
the defenition that system provides is similar to your own. Any "non spam" 
that didn't go through would then be caused by a missunderstanding of the 
defenition that the system implies.

John Fenley

_________________________________________________________________
STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE*  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
[email-masked]
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg

---

From: "Jon Kyme" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 23:27:47 +0100

> it would be compliant with the statement above.

This is an interesting point. But remember, "the system" must include the
receivers *intentions*.

> defenition that the system implies.

This may be true in a narrow sense. Logical, but unreasonable :-)
If I employ an imperfect agent which estimates the probability that a
message is unwanted and rejects those exceeding some threshold, I am not
asserting that I "don't want" the messages that are false positives. I
understand that the system isn't perfect. I do want my messages. I need to
know what I can do to get them.

--