> From: Dean Anderson <dean@av8.com>
> Shannon's theorem still stands.
> ...
> In terms of spam, this means that it is impossible to construct a
> protocol that cannot be abused
> ...
> No protocol can ever be constructed that is spam-free.
> ...
> All abusers are the customer of some ISP, somewhere. There are no
> outsiders. The spammers are in fact authorized users of some ISP that
> are authorized to send email. They remain authorized to send email
> until they lose service with that ISP.
Which is precisely why I say that the solution to spam is to charge for
email. It avoids the whole question of defining what is and is not spam.
More specifically, change the email protocol so that when email arrives from
an entity which is not on the "email from these entities is free" list, the
email is rejected unless is accompanied by a payment for $X (where X is set
by a knob on the machine).
(And yes, I know there are issues with relays, etc.)
If all spam arrives with a $1 bill, I'd be happy to let spammers send me as
much spam as they want.
Noel