[Spambayes] Two Stage Plan

Gary Robinson grobinson at transpose.com
Wed Dec 18 13:25:59 EST 2002


> 
> Given that spam mutates at a measurable rate (with filters seeming
> to degrade after about 3 to 6 months), to make such a solution work,
> Microsoft would have to provide updates regularly and people would
> have to accept those updates regularly.  This could either be as
> product upgrades (which people are already complaining about) or
> through a subscription service (which people are leery of).

No. What if people have to pay a penny for each email message they send
(such that legitimate people don't pay anything because they "earn" be
receiving email about as much as they "spend" by sending it?

Or what if their computer has to do a certain amount of work... say 15
seconds of CPU time... to generate a "hashcash" coin that is required by the
recipient before an email can get through? It wouldn't affect normal users
at all... but spammers would suddenly be unable to send millions of spams
without making a much larger hardware investment than they are likely to be
able to afford.

What if MS makes the mechanisms for one of this kind of scheme 100%
transparent so normal users don't have to think about them at all?

You're thinking in terms of filters based on content. That's not the only
way to do it, and I don't think it's what's going to happen again. There is
no way that spam can mutate around the kinds of solutions above. For
instance, the cost-based one will COST something no matter what the spammers
do. They will have to pay the cost or give up.

Gary




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