(Yes, it's way off topic, I know, but I need some entertainment today!)

At Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:05:46 -0500 (EST),
der Mouse wrote:
> 
> I don't know whether there's any spec requiring it.  I've never
> bothered searching; I am not willing to accept mail from any domain
> which I cannot contact by email.  While there doubtless are a lot of
> .de and .uk domains which are contactable, unless I have some way to
> find that contact info, it might as well not exist.

Well you could "assume" that they support the standard PostMaster
contact address (that actual IETF Standards require), and then just use
the postmaster.rfc-ignorant.org blacklist to block those who you know
don't.  That's what I do.  If more people use that blacklist then it
becomes a stronger force too.

Of course I also submit all those domains who I find don't accept mail
to their PostMaster account into the blacklist.

I suspect there are a lot more .com entries in that list than .co.uk,
.de or any other ccTLD, even if you calculate the totals as a ratio of
the number of domains in the respective TLD.

>  (Actually, I think the best way would be for the IANA to get off
> their thumbs on the subject and impose it from above.  Given how much
> authority is delegated that way, some responsibility needs to be
> delegated along with it.  But that seems even less likely to me than
> pressure from below effecting that change.)

That'll be a dark day -- or at least they will think so.  Nobody likes
their whining colonial teenager telling them what to do.  :-)

Now if the Americans would get off their own butts and relinquish _all_
Internet governance into the UN or some other more palatable and truly
international organization, then we might hope to get somewhere.

-- 
						Greg A. Woods

H:+1 416 218-0098 W:+1 416 489-5852 x122 VE3TCP RoboHack <woods@robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>       Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>