Subject: IAB policy - Spam, etc

From: [email-masked] (Dan Kolis)
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 10:57:07 -0500

Paul Vixie said:
>a long time ago i warned that the real victim of spam would be "openness"
>and that when closed communities with gates started appearing, then we would
>all know that we had lost the battle.  what i failed to predict was how long
>the "losing" would last before "lost" was generally considered obvious.
>it seems that comcast has determined that it costs them a lot more support
>expense for a customer who can initiate SMTP than for a customer who can't.
>they may also have discovered that such customers are willing to pay more.
>and they have certainly discovered that maps's dul is a voluntary method
>by which they can reduce or limit their support expenses on customers who
>are not paying extra for the "initiate SMTP" service.
>if you don't believe that comcast ought to have the ability to control how
>its services are used, then your recourse is the local PUC, and the FCC.

Dan Kolis says:
Well, without a voluntary and widely deployed careful, specific, fair
policy, eventually opening any socket will be (obviously) be a civil right,
That is, if you have been enabled for a TCP session; (paid ISP, in school,
etc) being denied any service on the basis of its content will be illegal;
(at least in countries with civil rights policies). A like freedom of speech
thing.

This is why companies with differentiated services; (mail relay, MTA's, WWW)
should charge less for basic service, have no support, and add QoS etc. And
charge a little for everything beyond the basics. (UDP, TCP)

This is clumsy but is exactly the dotted line between "Value added" and
"basic services" the FCC used to regulate AT&T. Clumsy, but if the legal
system understood technology better, it need not be arbetrary.

But, you know, since SPAM kicks this all off as a visible problem... just
like direct mail (paper); if no one ever buys anything, or falls for a scam,
etc the incentive to create it ceases. 

Too bad people are well, not too smart.

Regs to all,
Dan K

Dan Kolis - Lindsay Electronics Ltd [email-masked]
50 Mary Street West, Lindsay Ontario Canada K9V 2S7
(705) 324-2196  X272             (705) 324-5474 Fax
An ISO 9001 Company; SCTE Member ISM-127194
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