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Unless MTAs can reject mail for lack of postage, this approach will not fix a large majority of the problems of spam. Unless clearing is built into the protocol, sender pays is a non-starter.
I agree that there are lots of good reasons for sender-pays to be built into the MTA, but for users on broadband connections (like myself) I don't really care that the amount of email bandwidth may increase a bit if I don't see the spam. In the U.S. this amount to about 15% of the user base. Not a bad initial tareget.
the camram protocol can be embedded: at the client, or at the server. I have a mostly working version at the server and could use some help with a few things (see end)
one thing folks aren't too aware of is that I have incorporated a Bayesian style filter into the camram environment in order to reduce the number of "postage do" notices. As many folks justifiably point out, if you don't eliminate the need for a "and then the universe changes" step, you won't get out of starting gates. The addition of a filter to discriminate e-mail into three categories (red/yellow/green) allows me to reduce the number of challenge messages to a small fraction what they could be. The feature that implements "and friends fly free" allows you to build your communications map and reduce the need for stamps in either direction. Again, this works at client side or server side.
Unless and until Outlook supports wealth transfer for mail this will never happen. Unless and until MS profits from "fixing" the problem, Outlook will never support the notion. (and if MS does support it, mutt and evolution won't, because that's M$ hegemony. &etc.) Sender-pays won't fly.
Plug-ins for both Outlook and Eudora plug-in would go a long way toward a solution. M$ and IBM are both looking into real value stamps as a solution.
either plug-ins or proxies. It doesn't matter which. They both have trade-offs.
by the way, real value stamps are becoming less and less appealing to me. Think about a virus that exploits a hole in your e-mail client and sends lots of mail messages on your behalf. Somebody gets rich, you lose a little bit of money.
Put another way, you could deny unstamped mail from me if you wanted, with a bounce asking me to enter a credit card at the web page of your choice. Why are you not doing so?
CC aren't a solution. What I want is
- a Eudora plugin to check for hashcash stamps, send bounce messages, auto generate my hashcash stamps, and help create and maintain my white list.
- a web site which offers a hashcash stamp generator applet and simple instructions for
figure out how to make Eudora interface with Python code and we are most of the way there.
I don't run a mail server.
wimp. ;-)
I'll even write the code for you, if you'll promise to use it on all of your mail.
Write the above code and I will.
Let me know what language you prefer.
Java
in the camram project we're using Java only for the postage due notice web page. It needs to be rewritten a bit to be only Java 1.1, show only a big fat button that says "send postage" when it is done, and probably some other things which I can't think of right now.
The rest of the project is written python.
Help get the Camram code working.
steve
yea, what he said...
what we have done:
Basic filter sequence consisting of stamp, white list, postage due response, basic template
a stamp generating SMTP proxy prototype.
spam discriminator prototype based on CRM114
holding area management for spam and maybe spam mail
prototype CGI for holding area operations (discarded because UI sucks eggs)
prototype CGI for browser based stamp generation in response to postage due notice
what we need help with:
Holding area operations CGI. Must be simple UI allowing noncomputer user to correct discriminator misrecognitions and release improperly filtered messages.
better CGI for browser based stamp generation.
better SMTP proxy for outbound stamp generation (including proper BCC handling)
proxies for pop 3
any takers?
---eric
