On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 18:03:59 -0400 (EDT), Dean Anderson wrote: > Spam can be detected, and stopped after detection, but it cannot >be made impossible to send. >>The question is really whether SMTP has sufficient identification >information to track down an abuser, or infected user. The answer to this >question is "yes". Even with an open proxy, the SMTP information will >identify the open proxy. You cannot prevent it from being sent ONCE and, as you have so elegantly stated, no technical means will ever succeed in stopping spam. But (as you say above) you can identify the upload path. The only solution is to shut down the upload path, which is the method (generically speaking) that society at large uses to handle such problems. Those interested in this variant approach may wish to take a look at <http://www.camblab.com/nugget/spam_03.pdf> [the reasoning] and <http://www.camblab.com/misc/univ_std.txt> [the fix]. On the sound basis, shown time over time in multiple industries, that "quality is free", the variant approach I nominate will be essentially costless. I'd welcome any comments. Jeffrey Race