NEWS The Michigan Daily - Monday, June 14, 2004 - 3 vSirn'the Blues 'U' researchers propose solution to spam e-mail By Chloe Foster Daily Staff Reporter The battle between the common Internet user and spam e-mail drags on - a state of war in which there are no rules and no higher authority to whom one can appeal forjustice. But a research team at the University's School of Information suggests that some level of accord may be in sight. Doctoral students Thede Loder and Rick Walsh and Assistant Professor Marshall Van Alstyne said their solution for reducing spam is setting a price for spam senders in hopes that sending spam will ultimately become too expensive. "This mechanism hits spammers where it hurts most - their wallets," Van Alstyne said. The team's plan is called Attention Bond Mechanism and is unique because it is designed to strike a deal between e-mail senders and the recipients by requiring senders to pay those recip- ients who do not want their email. (The purpose of ABM is) "to provide an effi- cient means for two parties to discover if they have a potentially fruitful relationship (where both might benefit), while forcing senders to think carefully about who is receiving their e-mails so that they do not waste the time, effort and resources of the intended recipient," Loder said. The ABM software will filter the inbox, noting which senders are not pre-approved by the user, or not on their "whitelist." When a spammer sends an e-mail to someone who has not already agreed to receive the message, ABM will send the spammer a "challenge message." Loder said the the message will read, "Dear sender of an e-mail, you have attempted to contact a user of ABM, but this user does not have you listed as someone pre-approved for contact. If you still wish to reach this person, please authorize the transfer of 10 cents to his escrow account, then resend the e-mail and reference your proof of payment." He added, however, that the 10 cents is an arbi- trary number. The ABM user decides how much an email sender must risk in order to send the e- mail successfully. Therefore, if an ABM user sets his price at 60 cents per message, senders who are only willing to pay an amount lower than this sum will not have access to the user's inbox. Once the sender receives the challenge message and decides it is worth risking what- ever sum of money the ABM user has posted, the sender authorizes the payment and resends the message. If the user decides not to accept the message or that the message was abhorrent or simply uninteresting, he claims the money. But will this be forever farewell to "Enlarge your penis" and "Lose 50 pounds in two weeks" e-mails? "It would certainly reduce the volume of spam because illegitimate senders simply cannot afford to get into anyone's mailbox," said Van Alstyne in a written statement. "I would like to have access to software like (ABM). Anything that would stop spam because I hate it so much," said LSA senior Dave Mallozzi. But other students felt that ABM could cre- ate problems. LSA senior Dana Ciccone said that she fears the system may have some unintended effects, such as complicating e-mail communication even further. "It seems like something that looks good on paper but nothing else," she said. The next step for the team may be to market their idea, but for now, they said they simply want to provide an impetus for the market and con- sumers to realize that they can both benefit. "We're just as tired of spam as anyone else," said Loder, "But if we received 50 cents for each spam, that might be tolerable" Spam now represents about half of all e-mail traffic on the Internet, according to Brightmail Communications, a company that provides soft- ware for secure e-mail exchange. AP PHOTO I Ray Charles, the Grammy-winning crooner who blended gospel and blues, died Thursday, June 10, 2004 In Beverly Hills, Calif., a spokesman said. He was 73. ADMISSIONS Continued from Page 1 of both the Senate and the House, and *n when approved, to Gov. Jennifer Granholn. Some lawmakers, however, dismissed the amendment and said its foundation rests on shaky ground. It "is terribly ill-advised and totally unconstitutional," said Joe Schwarz, for- mer state senator and former chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education. He added that the amendment con- stradicted the state constitution. The constitution guarantees that the Wiversity's Board of Regents is the only body with the authority to change its own policy, said Schwarz, a Republi- can who is now running for the U.S. House of Representatives. Schwarz echoed the predictions of officials like Hunter and Dan Farough, press secretary for the House Democratic caucus. "This is a shot across the bow. My Wectation is when the bill gets to the Senate it will be taken out," Schwarz said. "There is a whole body of court cases going back to the 19th century on the relationship between the legislature and the universities that says the Legis- lature cannot mandate that any of the universities do anything." The University will be one of the par- ties fighting the amendment. "There are many steps, and we would be working as the process proceeds to make our views be known," Peterson added. In lieu of the predicted demise of the amendment, Democrats are confident that its caucus will remain unified. "Because the Republicans offered an amendment that holds the higher educa- tion bill hostage," the passage of the bill became a sensitive issue for Democrats, Farough said. Farough said that the dispute should not lead to any further disagreement within the party. "I don't think there is any serious fis- sure in the Democratic caucus," he said. "We're fighting to spend our time on jobs, healthcare and education - not the issues that divide us" Similarly, Hunter added, "It won't be a permanent rift, so long as the leader- ship ensures that this breakdown never happens again." In spite of its case history, those in favor of the amendment are still optimistic. Rep. Leon Drolet (R-Clinton Twp.), the author of the amendment, called it "another venue to end the practice of universities judging people on their appearances." Drolet is also a co-chair of the Michi- gan Civil Rights Initiative, an initiative that wants to make the use ofracial pref- erences unconstitutional in public bod- ies, including the University. "Since the House already approved this language, in the conference com- mittee, I'll be talking to the senators to try to ensure that this amendment stays in," he said. "This is what I have been trying to do with the ballot initiative for the past nine months." COLD SORES? 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