Microsoft’s anti-spam plans

In Toward a Spam-Free Future, Bill Gates describes Microsoft’s anti-spam initiatives, including MSN and Hotmail filters, upcoming filter technology for Outlook, Outlook Express, and Exchange, and proposed or suggested legislation.  For reasons I’ve outlined before, I disagree with legislative attempts at controlling spam, but I have to applaud Microsoft and other companies (AOL, Yahoo, Earthlink, and others) for finally taking a stand and actually trying to do something about the problem.  I still think that the most effective method of controlling spam would be to design and implement a new email protocol, but our industry leaders lack the backbone to take that big of a step.  In this respect they’re like Congress—wring your hands, complain about the problem, and pass meaningless resolutions to make it look like you’re doing something.

I don’t know if the third paragraph of the article was intended to be humorous, but I laughed out loud when I read it.  The thought of somebody spamming Bill Gates with offers to get out of debt or to get rich quick sure tickled my funny bone.