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

[Mouse]

>> 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 th$

That's a technical issue.  The probjlem is not technical.

In a civilized net, I could write to the postmaster at the host that
handed me the spam, who would then either smack down their local user
or chase the pointer to the next hop, as applicable.  Postmasters that
refused to act against abusers would find themselves without
connectivity, because providers would enforce terms-of-service against
them.  (Providers that refused to do so would find themselves without
address space and/or peering.  This chases up the governance pyramid,
hence the remark about needing will-to-enforce at the top.)

Time was - say, back when Jon Postel, rather than the US Department of
Commerce, was the top of the pyramid - back about when the MicroVAX-II
was new, to put it in terms people here can relate to :-) - I could
have lost my access for forging email.  Today?  Today I'd be surprised
if anyone even noticed, much less cared.  And nobody caring, and being
permitted to not care all the way up the governance chain, is exactly
the problem I'm talking about.

I suppose that's what happens when you put the Department of Commerce
in charge of something.  As long as it doesn't collapse far enough to
stop concentrating money in the hands of large corporations, there's
nothing wrong with it.

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