[Billy_bob_bob]

The answer is NOT to pass a new law, the answer is to provide a different kind of e-mail service. Simply put, most e-mail accounts are inclusive of the world at large, i.e. anyone can send you mail and you will get it in your in-box. The solution is to provide the option of making your e-mail service EXCLUSIVE of the world at large, i.e. you only get mail from those who you have explicitly included in your "approved to receive mail from" list. When you need to get e-mail from the world at large (for whatever reason) you switch the option on your account from "exclusive" to "inclusive". When you tire of spam you switch from "inclusive" to "exclusive". Simple. Easy. No laws required.

[Salgak]

One minor little problem. The world's standard for email, the Simple Mail Transmission Protocol, also known as SMTP, doesn't allow such a procedure. Nor does any mailserver I know of. So, such a system would need all new servers and clients. . . .just so we won't get mail that we didn't ask for ??

[Blue Screen of Death]

The solution is to provide the option of making your e-mail service EXCLUSIVE of the world at large, i.e. you only get mail from those who you have explicitly included in your "approved to receive mail from" list.

Occasionally I get suprise e-mail from old friends that have located me (usually via Google) and I am happy to hear from them. I don't want to give up this ability because some scum sucking asshole is sending spam. Screw 'em give them jail time. Fines don't work as long as there is money left over after the fine, which becomes a cost of doing business.

I don't care about anything except stopping these pukes. Forget the crap about no more laws, freedom of speech. Screw 'em.

[FourtySeven]

I could be misreading your suggestion (and your reply Salgak), but it seems to me this is already done. On "Web-based" e-mail services like Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL, you can already set a "filter" that will only accept incoming messages from a set of e-mail addresses that you input. Thus, there's no way around it.

Indeed, I use this system to keep my junk mail down to 0. I usually keep my Hotmail account set to "exclusive", which prevents anyone but mail I choose to come through, but when I "register" something, I just open up the filter to allow every mail, and when the "confirmation e-mail" comes, I just slam the filter back shut again.

For this reason, I believe that web-based e-mail delivery systems will become the "wave of the future", with free ones always available, but for real e-mail exchanges (no limits, or a high limit such as 10 MB on outgoing/incoming messages) one would have to pay a fee.

So no law is required, just a little more refinement in the area of "web based" e-mail systems, imo.