Unplugging spamming PCs

Thu Jun 24 18:40:01 UTC 2004

--On Thursday, June 24, 2004 11:17 AM -0700 Larry Pingree 
<lpingree at juniper.net> wrote:

>
> Hi Joe,
>
> 	If only those who are approved email senders are allowed to be
> accepted, this allows police, FBI, or DHS to go after only those who are
> registered and abusing it. It's for the same purpose that we administer
> car registrations, so that at the end of the day, someone is responsible
> for the car. In this case, someone can be responsible for the domain and
> mail server. In its current state, we are left way in the open. I don't
> disagree that government control is un-desirable, but remember, at least
> in my mind, even though it may be undesirable, it may be a necessary
> action. Anyone know why we have to get a drivers license? How about a
> passport?  What about a SSN?  All of these things are ways in which we
> can have accountability. Without accountability we will remain in
> anarchy. All that government does is bridge a gap when corporations,
> which only do things for profit, will not collaborate on an appropriate
> solution to a problem, even though one exists.

But why stop at email servers?  spam is only one of the unsociable and 
illegal acts happening on the Internet.  Why not license ownership of every 
IP capable device?   That'll stop all forms of DoS (DDoS and otherwise too).

Just to make sure, let's require that all vendors both inspect the license 
from their customers *and* notify the government on every purchase or 
upgrade.

Hmm.  Which government though?  Better to be safe... you can't be sure 
which country the device is being installed in, or which country the 
packets flowing through the device will also visit.  So let's require 
licenses from every country... and vendors to notify every government on 
every purchase or upgrade.

Yep, that'll do the trick.