If Earthlink was in charge of the U.S. Postal Service, they would block delivery of all newspapers, magazines, and other such info-commerce until everyone sending them had individually verified with Earthlink who they were and where they could be found. This would be regardless of whether or not you had specifically requested a subscription to the publication.

If Earthlink was in charge of the cable-TV industry, they would review every single bit of programming prior to broadcast and would decide, based on "their" heuristics, what constituted "good programming" with "spam programming."

If Earthlink was in charge of the telecommunications industry, they would put a block on every single phone such that it would review the incoming number to first see if it had ever called that number, and, if so, let it on through. If not, then Earthlink would re-route the call to a "black box" where the new caller could leave a message that could be reviewed by the recipient at a later time, and they decide whether they want to return the call...keeping in mind, of course, that if they do decide to return the call, THEIR call will likely be routed to another black box, and so on. (This type of operation would be the death knell of people like me who have to make cold calls to businesses.)

The aformentioned scenarios are exactly what the braintrust at Earthlink have now come up with to handle the problem of spam. And, before I continue, I should define exactly what spam is (because people at Earthlink clearly do not know what it is): Spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail sent without the ability to "opt-out" of the list.

The e-mails sent by me to you do not constitute "spam." I give you the opportunity to opt-out in every single issue. Plus, I am not "soliciting" anything from you unless Earthlink now counts "ideas" as "solicitation." (Which would explain a lot about why their stock is in the toilet, but that's another discussion.)

Beginning today, June 1, Earthlink will engage their new super-duper "Spam Blocker." But, rather than just blocking spam, all e-mail will be initially blocked and shoved to another place. How does it work? Allow me to explain.

If an Earthlink/MindSpring subscriber clicks on the option for the new Spam Blocker to engage, EVERY e-mail that that mailbox receives gets bounced into a secondary folder. At the time of the bounce, a return e-mail from Earthlink is sent right back to the sender of the original e-mail. This message being sent back is verification e-mail such that, if you were the sender of the mail to your Earthlink friend, you would have to open this return e-mail and type in your name and a randomly-generated code that Earthlink has displayed in the e-mail. After you do all this and send it back to Earthlink, your e-mail address becomes "verified" as a legitimate source and all e-mails in the future are sent on through. This verification process is called "challenge and response."

Now, this is all well and good for individual senders of e-mail. But, what about folks like me who use a mail server to send out mail? There is no human at the endpoint of my server who is going to hand-enter all of the verification information to satisfy nosy Earthlink.

Or, forget my moaning and groaning, what about sites like the Wall Street Journal that send out news alerts in bulk? There isn't going to be anyone at the return e-mail address to physically enter a name and a randomly-generated number 567,789 times to help satisfy Earthlink's new system.

For several months in the recent past, AOL subscribers to the Political Vine were not getting delivery of the Vine. That was because AOL had implemented some blocking software. But, once my server guys, 1871 Media, were able to connect with the CTO of AOL to get their servers verified, everything sent from their servers sails on through with no blocking or challenge/response required. That's the way communications on the Internet should work.

But, nowhere has Earthlink yet explained that there is any method for verifying an entire server or an IP address as being legit. No, every single e-mail sent from a server must be verified for each recipient.

The fact is, Earthlink, in its desperate attempt to play Mommy to its subscribers, has created a boondoggle bigger than the boondoggle it is trying to solve. I have no doubt that the way this project started at Earthlink was due to some Earthlink executive getting fed-up with having his manhood challenged with those Viagra e-mails asking him: "Having Erection Problems? I Have The Solution, Honey..."

Picture this: for every e-mail that hits the Earthlink server, a return e-mail gets sent back to the original sender. This is the Internet...does Earthlink think their unsolicited return e-mail isn't spam and won't add to the already burgeoning Internet traffic? (Duhhhhh...gee, Boss, we didn't think of that one...)

Then, of course, there are the politicians whining and groaning about making laws prohibiting spam. I addressed this in my January 2003 article titled Free Speech: What An Annoying Right To Manage. In that article, I brought-up the point about all that political snail-mail I receive being spam of a different form. I now have an addendum to that point.

The fact is that, in cyberspace, all that spam is merely annoying to the flow of e-mail and the in-boxes of recipients. There is no encroachment on anything in the tangible world.

Compare that with all of the mail solicitation I receive regarding mortgage refinancing opportunities. Or, credit-card offers. Or, political fundraising letters from people I will never give money to. Or, coupons galore. Or, 99.9995% of the Marietta Daily Journal...all stuff that I trash without reading.

All of this waste must be physically disposed of. All of this crap is filling-up landfills and causing more landfills to be built. All of this garbage that crams our mailboxes, some of which (esp. during the political campaign season) constitutes something on the order of 50,000 acres of trees of wood pulp waste every year, has got to be physically picked-up, shoved into a truck and either shipped to a recycler or dumped in a landfill.

Compare that, if you will, with the mere deletion of bytes on a mail server, and I have to seriously think that the politicans, like Senator John McCain, are out of their feeble minds to have to expend so much brain power trying to deal with electronic spam. Delete it, you morons, and be done with it!

Anyway, if you're an Earthlink subscriber, you'll be out of luck in receiving the Vine on time. Mommy-Earthlink is only doing this because she loves you and must protect you because you're not smart enough to handle your own responsibilities of managing free speech...