Subject: Re: [Asrg] Point of information...

From: Yakov Shafranovich <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 18:04:35 -0400

At 05:51 PM 6/20/2003 -0400, Barry Shein wrote:

>On June 20, 2003 at 11:20 [email-masked] (Yakov Shafranovich) wrote:
>  > >Now that viruses have emerged (Jeem, Proxy-Guzu, sobig.a) which can
>  > >make a computer (or, more to the point, millions of computers) an
>  > >unwitting weapon against the entire net this problem has to be taken
>  > >more seriously by Microsoft.
>  >
>  > Are any of these problems solvable by technical means? Going over and 
> over
>  > the illegality of spam does not help things, our group cannot make any
>  > legal impact anyway - we are working on technical solutions.
>
>Yes, replacing all MS windows operating systems on all computers
>attached to the net with either Unix or a modern unix-like operating
>system (Linux, Mac OSX) would eliminate about 99% of the spam and put
>virtually all spammers out of business instantly.
>
>That's not entirely practical, but it is technical and it would
>address the problem I am describing and responds to your
>concerns. Other technical approaches are possible. No, we're not
>finished, sorry...maybe Ritalin would help you.
>
>After nearly ten years of grappling with this for you to demand an
>instant problem definition and solution (or cease discussion) in one
>fell swoop seems almost willfully obstructionist.

Barry,

I am not demanding a definition or a solution. I would like to help to 
solve the problem just like everyone else. I do not think that anyone in 
here means bad, everyone means well. What I would like to see is more 
discussion of this topic from everyone including urself. Simply stating the 
facts and demanding a legal solutions does not help. I would like to see a 
technical discussion surrounding this approach and possible solutions.

Yakov  

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---

From: Barry Shein <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 19:01:37 -0400

> technical discussion surrounding this approach and possible solutions.

Of course it helps, why wouldn't a more accurate problem description
help? You sure you got enough sleep last night?

And no one is "demanding" a legal solution.

But, speaking in general terms, even if we devise a technical means to
make an illegal activity difficult or impossible it's still worthwhile
noting that the underlying behavior is (willfully) illegal and not
just some sort of act of ignorance or a malfunction we are correcting.

Ultimately there would be those in legislative and law enforcement
venues who would value that opinion, from a technical perspective.

-- 
        -Barry Shein

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