TMDA Re: [Gllug] New worm doing the rounds?

Bruce Richardson itsbruce at uklinux.net
Wed Feb 18 13:17:59 UTC 2004


On Wed, Feb 18, 2004 at 09:33:32AM +0000, Doug wrote:
> On Tue 17 Feb Bruce Richardson wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 17, 2004 at 02:59:06PM +0000, Doug wrote:
> > > pretty certain they'll not muck it up.  There are just so many corner
> > > cases that have to be dealt with, as well as the basic issues of freedom
> > > that others have mentioned.
> > 
> > Secondly, systems like SPF don't change any of those notional rights.
> >
> > [ranting snipped]
> 
> SPF changes who can send email from which domains.  Lots and lots of
> people have email addresses at ISPs, rather than the vanity domains that
> most of us geeks use.  These people can currently send email from
> anywhere

Most of them don't.  Those that do are enjoying a privilege that
spammers abuse to the full.  If the loss of that privilege were to help
eliminate a lot of spam, I bet most of them would not complain.

> 
> It's also common for people working from home to be able to send email
> from their business email address through their ISPs mail servers.  Sure
> there are technical solutions to this, but if it was all implemented
> right now, a bunch of people would lose a useful feature of the Internet
> they have now.

It doesn't have to be implemented all at once: that's the whole point of
incremental change.

> You may think it's perfectly reasonable for DNS ownser to control which
> servers can send email when their addresses are in their domains - it's
> not an unreasonable position.  However, it does change one of the basic
> freedoms that we have, to send email from any address we choose.

It's not a human right, it's a technical option.

The Internet has to change and it's going to change.  Now, if it isn't
done through open architectural standards then it will be done by Bill
Gates and Tony Blair and you just know you'll hate their solution.

> 
> I'd like to see the IETF come up with something here

I'd be very surprised if their "something" didn't turn out to be
something like SPF (although hopefully something a little more elegantly
designed).

-- 
Bruce

A problem shared brings the consolation that someone else is now
feeling as miserable as you.
Bruce

Those who cast the votes decide nothing.  Those who count the
votes decide everything. -- Joseph Stalin
Bruce

I unfortunately do not know how to turn cheese into gold.
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