A post-spam world suggests the demise of spam, right? Wrong. I doubt we’ll ever see that, despite what some industry luminaries have said. After all, spam is simply the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mail, and the law doesn’t prohibit that. Rather, what’s been outlawed are the most egregious uses in which mailers disguise their identities and mislead recipients as to their true intent. (Of course, Can Spam sets some important ground rules, too.)
So what does a post-spam world mean? It means that the industry will move beyond spam. It means that the incidence of that annoyance will decline dramatically over the next few years. And as it does, we’ll reach a point where we’ll simply declare the war won. But proclaiming victory doesn’t mean the job is done. The spammers always will lurk in the margins of our business, ready to spring back into action should our vigilance slip.
What this suggests to me is that the weapons used to defeat spam will stay with us too, and that they will profoundly affect the post-spam world.
So how will it be defeated? Several elements
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