[108064] in Cypherpunks
Re: Idea to eliminate most spam on mailing lists [CP]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tom Vogt)
Wed Feb 3 06:04:51 1999
Date: Wed, 03 Feb 1999 11:52:14 +0100
From: Tom Vogt <tv@wlwonline.de>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Reply-To: Tom Vogt <tv@wlwonline.de>
Trei, Peter wrote:
> Another solution would be to require all postings to be signed (and/or
> encrypted) by a well-known or published private key (such as the
> cracked Blacknet key) specific to the list. While most 'legitimate users"
> would have no problem doing this, no spammer can spend the time to
> sign messages.
actually, requiring all postings to be signed by a valid (see below) key
would be enough. that would a) eliminate most spam because of the
cost/effort ratio, b) authenticate messages while allowing for anonymity
(only your key would be known, so one would know which person wrote
which mails, but nothing about that person) and c) be even easier for
most people - a lot of mail clients already allow an option to
automatically sign all mails or some mails (like all going to
cypherpunks@cyberpass.net). it would also c) not require the publication
of a private key.
"valid" in this context would most likely mean that the majordomo knows
the key. this would require adding key-handling functionality to
majordomo, probably a new command saying "key follows".
