Wave of the Future (Spam)

That's absolutely correct! It's tough finding a solution that works at all, and finding one that works correctly will be VERY difficult. Ultimately, the only fair way to bill for internet use, above and beyond the basics of providing the connection, will be on the basis of bandwidth used. SPAM ultimately will have to be traceable because nobody will want to pay for unsolicited mail. SPAM is a nuissance, but it's not any worse than the 450KB cutesey greeting card that grandma sends to all her grandchildren, and the cute or funny cartoon that gets sent to everybody in your address book because you think it's so funny. I frequently exhort my friends/relatives not to do that sort of thing because of the bandwidth cost. SPAMmers got smart early on in the "internet revolution" in that they knew that it would ultimately come down to a cost per bit. They use email because their local server doesn't have to send an individual mail to each addressee. The router to which it is sent by his local host does that, and, in fact, it's possible to have a router downstream of that one do the dirty work. They know that it will eventually come down to the cost per bit, so they set things up to have someone else pay that cost. That's what I view as wrong. WE are the ones who pay for SPAM, and WE are not the ones who want it that way. Perhaps rewriting the email protocols can fix that, but the place it has to be worked out is in the IP/ICMP pair, among others, and in the TCP/UDP pair. Tracking the actual bandwidth used by a SPAMmed message probably will involve tunnelling protocols, which are normally avoided in order to preserve the layered architecture. My own experience with SPAM has shown me that even the application layer doesn't generally become aware of the actual source of the mass-mailing. Nevertheless, the challenge is to find that source and pass the cost back to him. It's not a priority today, because we're not charged by the bit. People are charged for bandwidth usage in some countries, however, so it's just a matter of time. Dick ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Foust" <jfoust(a)threedee.com> To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Friday, June 22, 2001 7:29 AM Subject: Re: Wave of the Future (Spam)