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Re: Fwd: Re: Digital Island sponsors DoS attempt?

  • From: Leo Bicknell
  • Date: Sat Oct 27 23:19:57 2001

On Sat, Oct 27, 2001 at 07:56:25PM -0700, Brian Whalen wrote:
> Don't pretty much all methods of spam reduction block some legit mail?  So
> the question is, do you want spam redcuction with some potential risk, or
> do you want all email intended for you.  I bet those who pay for
> additional bandwidth usage don't share in the opinion of the article
> below.

There are several interesting points to consider:

+-Spam extreme
|
+-You get all spam, because it's ok.  You also get all your normal mail.
|
+-You get a small amount of spam, but all your normal mail.  This is the
| best we can do and let you get all your normal mail.  This is the EFF's
| position.
|
+-You get no spam, and all your normal mail.  This a utopia that will
| likely never be reached.
|
+-You get no spam, and get most, but not all of your normal e-mail.  In
| general this is where I would say MAPS and ORBS and other black lists
| try to be, that is they want to remove all spam, but do sometimes catch
| legitimate e-mail.
|
+-You get no e-mail, because it might be spam.
|
+-No spam extreme.

Most anything inbetween these points is irreverent, as the methods
employed should be able to approach one of these points if implemented
correctly.

Philosophically I think the EFF is right.  Blocking a single
legitimate e-mail is very bad, and should be avoided at all costs.
Practically I think that the tactics of MAPS and ORBS and other
blacklists are necessary right now.  I'd like nothing better than
to see them go away because better technology has come along.

Legally (eg, if congress were going to pass a new law) I'm very
much on the side of the EFF, because the law must be pure and true,
because anything less impinges on our civil liberties.

-- 
       Leo Bicknell - [email protected] - CCIE 3440
        PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
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