Microsoft sues more alleged spammers

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The Answer Is...: ...the same answer I've posted to these boards before: positive, identity-trusted digital signatures for all messages, implemented at both the sending and receiving servers. Every message is traceable to a real person or company with a real e-mail address, thereby removing the cloak of anonymity behind which they hide. If they couldn't hide, they wouldn't do it. It would not require any legislation or legal enforcement.

If those who host SMTP servers would only allow messages with such ID attached to be sent, that would nip most spam at the source. There will always be server-scum who are willing to host spambags, so you won't catch all of it on the sending end, but you'll put a huge dent in it, and that will free up a lot of bandwidth that's currently being used for that garbage.

The rest of the problem can be handled at the receiving server. That's where the power of the consumer to take his mail account business elsewhere comes into play...or at least, the proprietary interest of the server hosts to keep the garbage off their servers. It costs them server capacity, time, and money. If positive digital ID were required before any message would be routed to an accountholder's Inbox, then everything that made it through to your Inbox would have been sent by someone who either has legitimate business to do with you, or is willing to be told "No thanks, I don't want any...and don't send any more messages to me." If they violate that constraint, they get all future messages banned from that incoming server. Again, no coercion involved; they simply play by the rules of engagement, or they can't even get in the game.

Such a system will not arise by legislative fiat. It will have to be market-driven in order for it to work. That means it will require either an educated user base to drive it from the consumer end (I'm not particularly optimistic on that one), or an enlightened group of mail server hosts. That latter option is far more likely. As soon as a couple of major ISPs or mail service providers implement it and make it stick, they'll grab so much market share that the others will follow suit rapidly.

It's like any other market phenomenon. It starts out slowly?VERY slowly?and meets great resistance from simple volitional inertia...people just don't like to change. And of course there will always be fierce resistance from the naysayers who will exert great effort explaining why it can't possibly work. But eventually they silence themselves when they see that the tide is turning. Ultimately, the general perception among users is "Jeez...how could it ever have been done any other way?" And so it goes.; Posted by: native alien Posted on: 12/02/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use