Paul Hoffman wrote:So far on this thread, we have heard from none of the "large-scale mail carriers", although we have heard that the spam problem is costing them millions of dollars a year. That should be a clue to the IETF list. If there is a problem that is affecting a company to the tune of millions of dollars a year, and that company thinks that the problem could be solved, they would spend that much money to solve it. Please note that they aren't.
And that would be because they can't do it in isolation. They need a system wide standard everyone is building to, to make your argument below about cost of untrusted mail moot.
And you believe that these companies are so stupid that when they have a problem that is costing them tens of millions of dollars a year, they wouldn't think of coming together for a solution? Maybe I have a higher opinion of them than you do because they were members of my consortium.
All of these companies have people following (and often participating) in the IETF. To assume otherwise without first asking them is pretty silly.
--Paul Hoffman, Director --Internet Mail Consortium