[governance] Re: spam policy (was: "Net Neutrality ...)

[Dan Krimm]

At 10:33 PM -0200 11/10/07, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
>On Thu, Nov 08, 2007 at 03:13:17PM -0700,
> Dan Krimm <dan at musicunbound.com> wrote
> a message of 50 lines which said:
>
>> There is an argument (devil's advocate) that suggests that if it
>> were easy to find out how the filter algorithm works it could more
>> easily be bypassed in the constantly-escalating spam wars, thus
>> negating the value of the filter tool.
>
>I've rarely heard this argument when there is a technical audience
>(because everyone would bursts with laughter). But, yes, I've heard it
>sometimes.
>
>Do we suggest that the police or other law enforcement bodies work
>behind closed doors because the bad guys could use the knowledge of
>their process for the wrong use?


I'm glad to hear this devil's advocate argument is not convincing (I do
believe, for example, the arguments suggesting that widely-used open source
SW can be more secure than proprietary SW because of the vastly larger
number of eyeballs pounding on it to close breaches quickly when they
emerge -- sunlight disinfects all things).

Nevertheless, sometimes law enforcement does legitimately "work behind
closed doors" in order to avoid alerting their criminal targets to their
operations.  Espionage, undercover operations, surveillance, etc.  Law
enforcement considers this a critical component of their tool set in
certain circumstances.

Of course, they routinely over-extend the legitimate application of these
tools, and that requires constant vigilance (by those serving the public
interest in a democratic society) to fight to constrain that transgression.
Drawing these lines appropriately and enforcing those lines is one of the
most difficult political balancing acts facing us as free societies.

So, your second paragraph may overstate the case, because in some contexts
the answer to that rhetorical question is indeed legitimately in the
affirmative.

Dan
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