On Tue, 25 Nov 1997, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> > I draw mine when people refuse to take responsibilty for their actions,
> > hiding behind forged IDs and innocent relay hosts.
> Unfortunately I don't think the RBL (or a privately maintained list like
> mine) is really going to do much good here without becoming far too
> much like Big Brother for comfort (eg. blocking relay hosts just because
> they've been attacked -- the victim will suffer twice).
...which is the point I was trying to make from the outset. RBL serves a
valuable purpose to many, but people must realize that it is no cure-all
that will single-handedly deliver society from spam.
> The only practical solution (other than going out and helping upgrade
> the probably zillions of mailers around the world that currently allow
> third-party relay by default, or waiting for most of them to get hit and
> be forced to upgrade) is to work with the access providing ISPs to
> ensure that they only permit authorized users to make SMTP connections
> outside their networks (just as corporate users normally do). I.e. all
> the el-cheap-o dial-up accounts *must* be forced to use the ISP's own
> mail relay host(s).
Agreed.
> Only after we put a stop to the illegal theft-of-service kind of spam
> will a list of black-listed spammers be of any real value to those of us
> who don't want *any* junk e-mail.
OK. But even then I suggest that such a blacklist be host-based rather
than IP-based, to consider that innocents can be sharing the same pipe as
spammers.
- Evan
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