Economics of SPAM [Was: Micorsoft's Sender ID Authentication......?]

Sat Jun 11 17:58:45 UTC 2005

One useful definition of (some sorts of) insanity is doing the same
thing over and over but expecting different results.

I therefore assert there is no technical solution to spam.

What will stop it is some sort of new economic model, billing for
e-mail (yeah yeah some reasonable amt "included"), along with vigorous
enforcement of that model against theft of service etc. Miscreants of
the sort we're dealing with only understand jail time.

But, as they say, ya get what ya pay for, or put differently and to
paraphrase someone else who I don't know wants the attribution:

  Most people want free e-mail in the worst way, and that's just how
  they get it.

I'll venture that any such sea-change will not come from the technical
community. That's another example of doing the same thing over and
over; clearly the internet technical community is stuck in a rut on
this issue and has been for years.

       -b