Is there a technical solution to SPAM?

Thu Jul 31 01:02:56 UTC 2003

Michael,

MDrc> I'm betting that we get the biggest bang for the buck out of education and
MDrc> training. Part of it will come from teaching people network etiquette,
MDrc> part from teaching them that spam is not a way to make money, and part of
MDrc> it from teaching website owners how to provide effective advertising so

"Accountable" Spammers are willing to work within the rules. In the
absence of rules, they are aggressive. These are the folks of the DMA
and the rest of the real, commercial marketing world. They have, so far,
been entirely resistant to the many, vigorous efforts to pursue
discussion-based education. For these folks, legislation-based
"education" is more promising.

Unfortunately, there is another set of folks that I call "Rogue
Spammers".  For various reasons, they cannot be held accountable.  Some
work form unaccountable environments.  Some are simply crazy or nasty,
so they don't care about making money.

Spammers are like roaches.  They are here to stay.  They are aggressive.
They adapt.

We need to respond with a variety of mechanisms, preferably coordinated
to maximize the aggregate effect.

d/
--
 Dave Crocker <mailto:dcrocker at brandenburg.com>
 Brandenburg InternetWorking <http://www.brandenburg.com>
 Sunnyvale, CA  USA <tel:+1.408.246.8253>, <fax:+1.866.358.5301>