Slashdot has posted a link to an interview with Daniel Quinlan.

Quinlan is the chair of Spam Assassin's Project Managment Committee.

He has some interesting things to say about spam - what it's like now and what he suspects will happen in the future.

I suppose that even though Spam Assassin is open source freeware, it still stands to reason that Quinlan seems to think the responsibility for eliminating spam lies with the ISP:

"If you don't mind deleting spam manually, that's your prerogative, but don't complain about it. If your ISP doesn't do a good job fighting spam, then switch ISPs or install your own anti-spam software. There are a lot of choices out there."

I've never understood this mentality. If I get spam then there's an almost 100% chance that it's my fault. I failed to protect my email address properly. Most email savvy users these days maintain a 'garbage' email account that they use to sign up for things so any resulting spam will go to that account rather than their main account.

Some might argue that we shouldn't have to do this and therefore it is the responsibility of the ISP or the cops or someone else to track down these spammers.

I believe it's more like wearing a seatbelt. Should I have to wear a seatbelt? No. If everyone follows the rules of the road then there would never be a crash and therefore no need for seatbelts.

But that's just stupid.

Almost as stupid as expecting someone else to save you from spam.

For myself, I highly recommend Vanquish Anti Spam. I've been using it for a few months now and only one piece of spam has gotten through to me during that time. At $25 USD a year - it's a hell of a deal to eliminate spam.

Direct link to interview.

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