Re: [apps-discuss] [saag] [websec] [kitten] HTTP authentication: the next generation

[der Mouse <[e-mail]>]

> Look back far enough and you'll find all kinds of "electronic mail"
> services implementing the full range of peer and end user
> authentication, and sender-pays models.  There was no spam on those
> systems, or at least not enough that anyone felt like they needed a
> word for it.

There was basically no spam on open-Internet SMTP mail either, at the
time.  Certainly "no spam" by today's standards.

> Guess why we use the one we use today.

At the time, the services you deride weren't providing a significant
value-add.

Today?  They would be.  Perhaps not enough to make up for their costs;
probably not, in fact, or there'd be businesses arising in that space.

As a side note, it's interesting to see how well the early Internet
designers built; their systems are routinely being stressed several
orders of magnitude beyond what they were designed for, and are holding
up remarkably well.  The postal system did collapse when it started
suffering from spam; that's why the paper chain mail is actually
illegal in many jurisdictions - it took down the postal system, once
upon a time.  The telphone system would collapse if phone spam
outnumbered real calls by 10, 25, 100 to 1.  (Actually, in a sense they
already do.  I have a fax line set up, and get dozens of fax spams for
every real fax.  I've had to start adapting and applying my email spam
fighting techniques there....)

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