Spam control again

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

Derek Martin wrote:
> I have to admit that the severity of the problem is still
> mostly just a nuisance

For many people, it's only a nuisance.  But exponential growth of spam flow
causes it to go rapidly beyond nuisance level in two ways:

1) Once the flow goes beyond about 100 messages per day to any given
individual, controlling it becomes a time-consuming hassle.

2) Corporations have to spend money and incur legal liability for controlling
spam; and as the flow increases, software updates must be applied.

Our government probably would look the other way if #1 were the only issue. 
But #2 represents cold hard cash coming out of coffers of those entities which
finance our political system.  This is going to come to a head, and the
resolution won't be purely technical.

If there were a technical solution, we'd have implemented it a while ago.

One purely technical approach is fairly obvious:  eliminate anonymous email
from the net.  Implement strong authentication between every MUA, MTA, and
email user.  Block port 25 from any ISP that doesn't follow protocol of
requiring a driver's license and credit card imprint from every user.  Sound
impractical or extreme?  Well, perhaps, but thinking back to the early 1980s
or late 1970s--that's how the 'net was in its early days.  Everyone knew
everyone else.  Could it be done?  Yeah, probably it'd take a week or so to
get every ISP to update to a new sendmail or qmail or whatever.

Not many of us actually want to resort to draconian measures like that.

-rich