Re: [Nolug] Spam Plan

On Fri, Jan 10, 2003 at 09:11:59AM -0600, Craig Jackson wrote:
> Perhaps some people from this list could tell me if this is a decent
> plan to kill spam.
>
> KILL SPAM PLAN
> 1) Declare two classes of email: First Class and Second Class
> 2) These classes are defined as follows: First Class is all other email
> characterized by the "class" bit set to 0 in the header.
> Second Class is all unsolicited commercial offers or advertizements and
> is characterized by the class bit set to 1 in the header.

Write an RFC. Get the IETF to support it. Then perhaps authors of MTA's
will write the envelope header changes into their software. And then you
just have to get the entire world to upgrade their MTA's or accept
backwards-compatability (ie mails without your new header changes) which
breaks the entire scenario.

> 3) ALL offers or advertizements must be sent with the class bit set to
> 1.Users at the MTA/MTU level may filter according to this bit if they
> choose.
> 4) Those emails judged second class without the class bit set to 1 can
> be forwarded to a governement agency which will place the sender in a
> database which will be distributed to ISPs who will be obligated to
> refuse service to that sender.

4) is a problem though. Who's going to PAY for that? And are you
suggesting that the IETF and the rest of the world conform to new US laws?

> 5) A second class email may be sent with the class bit set to 0 if and
> only if it is in response to a specific request for this material.

Of course there's a more basic problem with your scenario:
What's going to stop spammers from setting the Class Bit to 0? We're
talking about ethically challenged people who spoof headers and utilize
(admittedly misconfigured) open relays that don't belong to them. I
added an arbitrary header to this email. See if you can spot it.

-- 
Scott Harney<scotth@scottharney.com>
"...and one script to rule them all."
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