Subject: [Asrg] 6. Proposals - Filters that Fight Back

From: Yakov Shafranovich <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 15:57:21 -0400

Paul Graham (www.paulgraham.com) has recently posted another anti-spam 
proposal on his website. See:

http://www.paulgraham.com/ffb.html

This has also been posted on SlashDot:

http://slashdot.org/articles/03/08/10/1619206.shtml

The basic thrust is that filters would follow every URL in the spammer's 
emails thus creating a DDOS attack and shutting down the spammer's servers. 
SlashDot readers have raised several objections:

1. Possibility of URLs actually verifing the email address.
2. Possibilities of a wrong site being targeted on purpose or by mistake.
3. "There is no internet equivalent of lawful self defence"
4. Possibility of large portions of the Internet slowing down. 

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From: "Chris Lewis" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 15:53:05 -0400

Yakov Shafranovich wrote:

> emails thus creating a DDOS attack and shutting down the spammer's 
> servers. SlashDot readers have raised several objections:
> 

Note as well, many sites track "opens", so they're already more-or-less 
expecting a load of that magnitude.

[I'm about to lean heavily on a mailing list outfit that treats webbug 
tracked "opens" as opt-ins.]

> 2. Possibilities of a wrong site being targeted on purpose or by mistake.

Automated DDOS.