A friend and I were discussing the anti-spam laws recently introduced and we both decided that it will not work, mostly because it has no automatic mechanism to deter counterfeiting and lacks any funding for investigation and prosecution.
I think the US Postal Service should establish a secure registered mail server that is used to send and retrieve certified email. This would be a new service backed by US law that would provide an alternative to existing email services for people and businesses to send email to one-another under strict conditions monitored and protected by the US Postal Service and its massive federally mandated resources. This is how I envision it to work. Each ISP would register with the US Postal Service Secure Certified Email Server to be part of the certified mail network. When I have an important piece of email that MUST be received and acknowledged I send it to the US Postal Mail Server, from a certified ISP which verifies that I am in fact who I say I am. The recipients ISP sends the recipient an email informing him that he has mail waiting on the US Postal Service Mail Server. Ince the mail is read, am acknowledgement is sent to the sender. Of course, any mail, including acknowledgements, would be secured via an encryption protocol that would require a federal search warrant to read (just like snail mail does now ). The law establishing the existence of the US Postal Service Secure Email Server would allow a nominal fee ($0.01 per email ) be charged to the sender's ISP which would be split between the ISP and the Post Office to cover expenses, and more importantly screen out abusive e'mailers. The entire process would be protected under amendments to existing laws which provide the means for prosecuting mail fraud. The entire premise is based on the concept that money is ultimately the best regulator (as demonstrated by every existing and past government I the form of taxes). A fee, set at the appropriate level, will benefit the average person/businessperson, while providing a disincentive to those who want something for nothing (current spammers). Also, this fee would help to prosecute those that counterfeit the system by using existing modified mail fraud laws (something that is lacking from current spam control laws is funds for enforcement). I would gladly pay a reasonable fee to ensure that important email is read. And of course, I can always send an email using the current method if I don't mind the risk of it being filtered out along with the 100 or so illegitimate emails that the recipient receives each day. This seems like an obvious solution, so I am curious to hear the down side possibilities. Roger M. -----Original Message----- Declan Moriarty Sent: Monday, December 29, 2003 11:34 AM To: Multiple recipients of list CHIPDIR-L On Thu, Dec 25, 2003 at 03:34:19AM -0800, Bob Paddock enlightened us thusly > > > > http://mailfilter.sf.net/ Linux > > > > That's a bit iffy for a linux solution. Deleting unseen mail with no > > recovery option. You'd want to get that tuned nicely first. > > Set TEST=YES and nothing gets deleted, it just test you what it would > have done. > > I've used Mailfilter for as along as it as been around. > > Once in a while it does delete some thing that I wanted, usually > because someone changed there name, like from "Dan K." to "D. K." in > there email address. > > In those cases I simply ask them to resend it again based on what I > see in the log. > What's wrong with spamassassin or tmda(?). I like the latter approach - a whitelist, and blacklist. If you are whitelisted, it allows it, and if you are blacklisted, it dumps it. Anyone else gets a reply saying "If you are really out there and really want to send mail to <whoever> just click 'reply'. If no reply comes, the spam goes silently after 3-5 days. That way, you can be fairly sure you have a lead on whoever spams you. -- With best Regards, Declan Moriarty. -- Author: Declan Moriarty INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB CHIPDIR-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). -- Author: Roger Morella INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB CHIPDIR-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
