Date: Mon, 06 Oct 2003 09:46:36 -0700
From: "NewsScan" <newsscan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Fighting spam: raise the bridge or lower the water?
Many software experts now believe that the best way to fight spam is not by
targeting it directly but instead by concentrating on the identification of
legitimate mail. VeriSign executive Nico Popp explains, "People have been
spending all their time creating filters to find the bad guys. We want to
turn that on its head and find ways to identify the good guys and let them
in." The idea would be to develop the Internet equivalent of caller ID,
with a technology that identifies senders and lets receivers presume that
unidentified senders are sending junk mail. Richard Reichgut of
AuthentiDate says, "It's not easy to change something as successful and
widely used as e-mail. But the only way to fix e-mail is to have a strong
way to know who is sending you mail." [*The New York Times*, 6 Oct 2003;
NewsScan Daily, 6 Oct 2003]
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/10/06/technology/06SPAM.html
[Once again, see Lauren Weinstein's Tripoli proposal --
http://www.pfir.org/tripoli-overview
-- which is a sensible approach to giving users control over how to
confront the e-mail dilemma. BEWARE of ceding this authority to ISPs!
PGN]
[Also, see "Four Internet pioneers discuss the sorry state of online
communication today. The consensus: It's a real mess." by
Katharine Mieszkowski, Salon.com:
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/10/02/e_mail/
She quotes Dave Farber, Dave Crocker, Brad Templeton, and Jakob Nielsen.
PGN]