Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam

I hate to discourage you, but as somebody who has been on the Internet

> even longer than you

and me -- I've "only" been around since 1989 :)

Jon [Postel] died suddenly, and Melvin Dummar found a will in his
> name, giving control of the name and address space to a Washington
> lawyer named Sims, who created ICANN out of whole cloth, appointing > a board.

This doesn't sound right. Didn't ICANN exist a few years before Postel's passing?

What can they do about spam? Frankly, nothing. They control TLDs.
> That gives them some leverage against the registries and registrars,
> who are supposed to follow some rules, but if a registrant pays his
> $8 or whatever and buys a domain from some registrar, then he can
> use it for spam until the registrar pulls it. Since registering is
> automated, there's no real threat against spammers.

ICANN could probably craft better rules and enforce them. (IMHO)

Even the address-space threat is not helpful; spammers are often
> able to find vacant number blocks and sneak them onto networks long
> enough to do their damage.

Which is the fault of the ISPs

his UUNET was the top ISP, its reputation was good, and Vint Cerf (the
> Chauncey Gardiner of the Internet, famous for being there) was his > sexy spokesmodel.

Eeyew, you called Vint Cerf sexy.

such misbehavior was not tolerated. The appropriate response is
> technological. Yes, laws help too;

Again IMHO, the ultimate solution has to be a combination of legal, technical and social ...

price in the fractional-penny range on "stranger emails", enough to
> discourage spam but not normal use. While John Levine hates it (and I
> respect his opinion), I still haven't seen any ideas I think are > better.

It won't work.

JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA -

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"