Re: [9fans] ISP filtering - update

[Lucio De Re <lucio@proxima.alt.za>]

On Fri, Sep 26, 2003 at 08:21:51AM -0400, David Presotto wrote:
>
> It does indeed, our SMTP supports it thanks to Dan.
>
Yes, I've been meaning to explore this in detail, but I've been
accepting it as gospel truth in the meantime :-(

> >   In other words, I
> > inspect your certificate, decide I can identify you in front of
> > a judge and accept the mail.  Otherwise, you're out of luck.
>
> Yes that is indeed the scheme we're talking about.  The problem is
> proving anything.  If most mail is delivered by a third party
> (i.e. an ISP) and you only have certs belonging to your friends
> then you have nothing to check unless you have CERTs for the
> ISPs.  Somewhere we need a list of credible ISP CERTs.

Well, the alternative I had in mind was to have a short dialogue:

S: Are you willing to accept responsibility for this piece of mail?
C: Me?! you must be joking!  This is spam disguised as a virus.
S: Cool, go try your luck elsewhere.

Also, I'm not sure so many ISPs are responsible for delivering mail
over SMTP.  Certainly, I have been proposing to my clients that
they set up a small dial-in server for their travelling users to
dial into instead of risking ISP inspection of what could be
confidential information.  Over time, I think this may well become
a trend unless (or maybe especially if) the POTS migrates to IP.

Then again, my life brightens up when people suggest using UUCP to
deliver mail (or transfer files from Windows, as I wish I could do
in one recent instance).  Has nobody tried to port BNU or Taylor
UUCP to Plan 9?

++L