Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 15:59:54 -0800 From: David Schultz <dschultz@uclink.Berkeley.EDU> To: Dave Hayes <dave@jetcafe.org> Cc: dever@getaclue.net, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Bystander shot by a spam filter. Message-ID: <20021230235954.GB2072@HAL9000.homeunix.com> In-Reply-To: <200212302207.gBUM74175262@hokkshideh2.jetcafe.org> References: <200212302207.gBUM74175262@hokkshideh2.jetcafe.org>
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Thus spake Dave Hayes <dave@jetcafe.org>: > Douglas A Dever <dever@getaclue.net> writes: > > Previously, Dave Hayes (dave@jetcafe.org) wrote: > >> Hear hear. > >> > >> Would it be possible to file a class action civil suit against > >> blacklist organizations on a similar basis? > > Why would you want to? > > You had to ask, and you had to ask *me*. Very well...I said a lot > of this 10 years ago and I'll say it again. ;) > > SPAM is not a technical/internet problem. It's a cultural problem. The > same force that puts billboards on highways and infomercials on > television brings you SPAM. =Nothing= you can do will really be > effective at completely stopping it without blocking legitimate email. > Marketeers exist and are going to find some way to grab your attention > and send you a message, regardless of the medium. Fighting it wastes > energy and time better spent on other positive things. True, but what makes SPAM different from other forms of advertising is the cost model. When you get junk mail, someone had to pay for printing and delivery. Consequently, they expect that you will be interested because they need to get a reasonably high response rate (say 1%) in order to make the advertisement pay off. With SPAM, the cost falls upon the recipient. Spammers don't care whether you're interested because they can send millions upon millions of copies for virtually no cost to them. Moreover, the Internet provides a degree of anonymity. Since everyone and his dog can send SPAM, spammers are, for the most part, far less reputable than businesses that use traditional communication media. To fix the problem technically, you need to change the cost model, or have some sort of authentication for email. Both of these are a long way from general use, unfortunately. (BTW, do you think you could fix your reference headers before you get into another mega-discussion with Terry, so it's easier for me to find the entertaining parts? ;-) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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