Spam [was Re: still looking for that stuff?]

[Paul Koning]

> On Aug 10, 2016, at 8:57 PM, Mouse <mouse at Rodents-Montreal.ORG> wrote:
> 
>> Spam will not stop until the last spammer is dead.
> 
> Actually, it's really simple to stop spam.  Simple, not easy.
> 
> You just need to delegate responsibility along with authority when
> handing out netblocks, registering domain names, and the like.

I'm not sure what you're getting at here.  The trouble with email is that the addresses you see are just text strings in a protocol that has no security or authentication.  The route data in the full headers tend to tell a more accurate story, but the "from" string is just a string that carries no weight whatsoever.  It's undoubtedly possible to design protocols that don't have this defect, but SMTP is not such a protocol.  (Nor is SMTP the only one, witnessing the famous "kremvax" hoax.)

	paul