AW: [WSIS CS-Plenary] UN Official Document System is online

[Enrique A. Chaparro]

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 14:45:32 +0100
Wolfgang Kleinwächter <kleinwaechter at medienkomm.uni-halle.de> wrote:

WK> Could somebody from the PTC community give me (and other WGIG members)
WK> a clearer picture about the real conflicts on e-Mail Authentication
WK> and the related software (SPF vs. Caller ID and other more or less
WK> creative new services). This is to a high degree also a governance
WK> issue (FTC, ITU, OECD, IETF and probably also ICANN) and it will be
WK> relevant for a number of WGIG issues, in particular "Spam". 
WK>  
WK> What the FOSS community wants to see as a priority aspect here and
WK> where we should go?
WK>  
WK> Best
WK>  
WK> wolfgang

Wolfgang,

To make a long story short, the main issues regarding SPF, etc. are:

(a) No patented technology could be adopted as a standard (unless it
    is licensed royalty-free, universally, and with no restrictions at
    all). If a patented technology is adopted, free software programs
    (which handle the overwhelming majority of Internet's email traffic)
    could not implement it.

(b) Even if a patent-unencumbered sender identification technology is
    adopted, that will NOT solve the current unsolicited email issues.
    Such technologies provide just a way to authenticate the sender,
    not to prevent the mass mailing of messages. Sender authentication
    should raise privacy concerns[1], without providing a solution
    to spamming.

If you want to discuss the issues in more detail, please let me know.

Regards,

Enrique

Note:
[1] Anytime you deal with email, please try to do the analogy with
    conventional mail. Each and every protection that the laws have
    granted to postal mail must be considered for email.
-- 
``Izena duen guzia omen da.''
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