Subject: Re: [Asrg] Shannon Jacob's article on spam

From: Yakov Shafranovich <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 May 2003 14:02:49 -0400

> > At 6:00 AM +0900 5/20/03, Shannon Jacobs wrote:
> >> However, I've already said that I think the obvious solution is to
> >> provide an alternative cash-up-front email system. There are plenty
> >> of things wrong with snail mail, but it does work quite effectively
> >> in limiting the volume of physical spam we receive
> >

As a technical standards group, we can define the general protocol that can 
be used for such systems leaving the actual implementations aside. This is 
similar to the efforts on developing an interworking C/R protocol by Eric 
Dean. Just like all other solutions (C/R for ex.), an economic up-front 
system will not be acceptable to everyone and not everyone will be using 
it. As Dave Crocker states in his draft 
(http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-crocker-spam-techconsider-01.txt):

"it is not clear that it is possible to retroactively fit the necessary 
mechanisms to Internet mail. Its complete absence from the current service 
and the existence of anonymous and free email services may provide too much 
operational inertia.  It is also not clear who should receive the fees or 
how they should be disbursed."

Therefore, I think we should look at such systems as one of the possible 
solutions against spam. There are already some startups that use this 
system. Our goal as a standards group should be on standardizing a protocol 
that can be used by many such systems to interoperate among themselves. 
Whether the actual systems SHOULD be implemented or recommended is a 
different question, but based on what we are seeing now, some of these 
systems already exists and more will be implemented - just like the many 
C/R systems. Our goal is to make sure they interoperate.

Yakov

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Yakov Shafranovich / <[email-masked]>
SolidMatrix Research, a division of SolidMatrix Technologies, Inc.
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"One who watches the wind will never sow, and one who keeps his eyes on
the clouds will never reap" (Ecclesiastes 11:4)
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