VIRUS (Worm.SCO.A) IN YOUR MAIL

[Derek Martin]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2004 at 12:33:17PM -0600, Chris Devers wrote:
> > Incidentally, I find it ironic that a virus author has managed to do what 
> > Microsoft can't or won't: build and ship a working, free MTA for Windows.
> 
> You say that as if it's a good thing. Or a bad thing, from the other point
> of view. Isn't it the Right thing though? 

No.  SMTP was designed to work that way, because it's more efficient.
And in your model, who gets to decide who can run a valid e-mail
server?

> This isn't the original, public, peer-peer internet anymore -- you can't

Yes it is.  Granted, it's bigger, and there are a lot more and diverse
people using it, but it's essentially the same.  It is still
peer-to-peer, and still works essentially the same way it did 30 years
ago.

> just do things like trust your neighbor not to abuse his personal SMTP
> server. 

Whether I do or don't, it doesn't stop spammers from spamming.
There are any number of programs they can buy or download to do the
trick for them.  Your trust, or a lack thereof, is completely
irrelevant.

> I suspect the spam problem would be *a lot* worse if every copy of Windows
> shipped with a working SMTP server. 

Nonsense.

> Feel free to disagree though.

I do, very strongly.

-- 
Derek D. Martin
http://www.pizzashack.org/
GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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