ZDNet's David Berlind is Pissed at Anti-Spam Vendors

ZDNet's David Berlind is pissed at anti-spam vendors.

He says he's tired of getting messages from software, hardware and service providers claiming they have the final solution to the spam problem. He says that every time he investigates such a technology, he finds a pile of marketing lies.

He says that the distributors of anti spam filters keep making promises, but the problem keeps getting worse. Even though he has two different spam blocking technologies deployed, he claims to get more spam than ever before.

I would of course offer him a free copy of SpamButcher, but he makes it clear in his blog that he doesn't want to be bothered by offers from people like me. Man, he sure sounds pissed.

While SpamButcher isn't the final solution to the spam problem, it is a pretty good one. I have to wonder systems he has in place for blocking junk mail are just not that effective.

Fortunately in Berlind's long, angry, rambling blog - he does eventually get around to the root of the problem. Spammers will be spammers. To eliminate spam, email itself has to change.

Berlind however is under the impression that the "email industry" has the ability to up and change email if it really wanted to. This strikes me as a confused stance; reminiscent of people who think "they" killed the electric car.

The problem is that any business has customers, and is unlikely to behave in ways contrary to their demands. The changes needed to exorcize spam from email would necessarily have a bumpy implementation. Businesses rarely like to take risks when it comes to critical infrastructure.

David seems like a well intentioned fellow, but a vacation away from internet might do him good.

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