[RawAlex]

If you read the annoucement carefully, they are working to block out spam with false or misleading headers. That makes up a huge portion of the stupid, repetitive, wasteful spam that clogs up computers, mail systems, and networks. SMTP isn't made to be very secure (it was designed well before the net was commercialized) and is easily abused.

On a daily basis, I get over 500 pieces of spam. Recently, someone was kind enough to spread my personal (private) email address around to spammers, and as a result, I am about to kill that account. Within a one week window, that account started getting 100 pieces per day.

Any single piece of spam isn't an issue. But figure this out: How many members does AOL have, times maybe 100 pieces of spam per user per day... think of the fun required to administer a mail system that large, and think of how much smaller that system would be without having to handle that much junk mail... (If my mail is any indication, there is about a 50 to 1 useful letter ratio, so AOL could easily shed 33% of it's mail system infrastructure and related costs if spam dropped down to more reasonable levels).

RichC: I would love to opt out. Most spammers use opt out lists as "live ones", and resell those lists to other spammers. You opt out of one, get 100 new ones to replace it. What's the point?

In Canada, the post office must respect your with for no spam. If you put a "no ad mail" sticker on your mailbox, they will not deliver anything in "bulk" class to your mail. Locally, that same sticker also keeps the door to door flyer people from dropping their little offerings all over your front step as well.

Alex