End Game

The spam problem has now existed in its current form for about the last 5 years. Prior to that, people did get spammed - but it usually wasn't debilitating. A large portion of the internet populace now gets so much spam that one or more of their email accounts is practically unusable without an e-mail spam blocker.

So where do things go from here?

Without question, the CAN-SPAM act was the most hyped spam fighting law passed to date. However, it unfortunately lacked much content. Contrary to what its name would suggest, it doesn't really do anything to block spams. It only places a few restrictions on spam messages. Specifically, they have to provide a physical address and a working opt-out mechanism. Even as light-weight as CAN-SPAM is, most spammers appear not to be following it. There have been a few prosecutions under the act, but apparently not enough to scare most senders of unwanted commercial email into compliance.

Many pundits have long held that the government would ultimately provide resolution to the spam issue. So far, it hasn't happened. Perhaps CAN-SPAM 2 (electric boogaloo) will in fact take real steps to end spam.

More likely, private industry will continue to come up with new efforts to block unwanted e-mail.

Recent industry developments have included sender authentication systems, email "postage" systems, and ever-improving spam filters. The most promising new technology appears to be the postage-based systems. The idea is that a sender has to commit a certain amount of CPU resources in order to send an email. This would make sending millions of bulk messages in a short time extremely difficult.

Most users should continue to seek out their own solutions for blocking junk e-mail. SpamButcher provides a simple, easy solution that works well for either individuals or small business.

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