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SendMail CTO Sounds Off On Spam and FTC

Posted by Hemos on from the yeah-some-experience dept.

CowboyRobot writes "Eric Allman takes his well-deserved turn in commenting on the state of spam, the dark future, and the need for intervention. He calls spam an "arms race" where "in the long run everyone loses (except the arms dealers)." As you might imagine, he's on our side, and he does a good job of clearly describing the current state of spam, and the possible solutions."

3 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. I like the idea by Transient0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    of the do not spam registry that they mention in the article. But it seems like a real pipe dream considering how much trouble there has been getting the do-not-call registry up and running.

    Also, most telemarketing is done from in-country because of LD charges. Not so with e-mail. It's pretty hard to enforce US laws on a Taiwan spamhaus.

    Ah well, every little voice against spam warms me a little at least.

    --
    lysergically yours
  2. sorry, a gut feeling is good enough by Schlemphfer · · Score: 5, Insightful
    You've asked for statistics, but this is a case where none are really needed. Logic is good enough. What you've asked for can't be all that easily studied. Harvesting email addresses from opt-out lists has to be about the sleaziest thing a spammer could do. And you'll agree that the sleaziest spammers forge headers. So, how on earth could you be 100% certain that your act of opting out has caused a given piece of spam?

    All you can do is look at the spam industry itself, and ask, "why wouldn't they harvest opt-outs for future spamming?" By opting out, after all, you've just given proof that the email address in question is valuable to you. Why wouldn't they want to take advantage of that piece of information. Do you think spammers suddenly adopt scruples on this point? Given how unscrupulous spammers are in every other aspect of what they do, I think it's absurd to think they treat opt-out lists with any integrity.

    That opt-out lists will be abused by spammers is common-sense. I think the burden of proof is on you to show otherwise.

    --
    I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
  3. Re:Sendmail is a Good Guy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OK, at first you were just the usual whinging slashbot, repeating the "Sendmail is BAD" mantra that people who've never run major mailserver like to parrot. (With the usual complaints, which all sound like "Ford cars must be slow, because the Model T was slow, and they must all be broken, because the Ford Motor Co. has had recalls where they fixed cars for free".)

    Then you mentioned "MS Exchange developers" in the same breath as Wietse Venema and Dan Berstein, and finished off by calling Allman a "suit".

    You must be a troll, then! Or profoundly, phenomenally ignorant.