Make spammers pay, says Gates
2004-01-25 11:14
Davos, Switzerland - A spam-free world by 2006? That's what Microsoft Corporation chairman Bill Gates is promising.
"Two years from now, spam will be solved," he told a select group of World Economic Forum participants at this Alpine ski resort. "And a lot of progress this year," he added at an event late on Friday, hosted by US talk show host Charlie Rose.
Gates said his company, at which he retains the title of chief software designer, is working on a "magic solution" based on the concept of "proof" - or identifying the sender of the e-mail.
One method involves a human challenge, or requiring the sender of an electronic pitch to solve a puzzle that only a flesh-and-blood person can handle.
Another is a so-called "computational puzzle" that a computer sending only a few messages could easily handle, but that would be prohibitively expensive for a mass-mailer.
But the most promising, Gates said, was a method that would hit the sender of an e-mail in the wallet.
People would set a level of monetary risk - low or high, depending on their own choice - for receiving e-mail from strangers. If the e-mail turns out to be from a long-lost relative, for example, the recipient would charge nothing. But if it is unwanted spam, the sender would have to fork over the cash.
"In the long run, the monetary (method) will be dominant," Gates predicted.
During the wide-ranging discussion, however, he conceded that his prognostications have not always been on the mark. Notable misjudgements include the rising popularity of open-source software, epitomised by Linux, and the success of the Google search engine.
"They kicked our butts," he said, while promising an even-better next-generation Internet search engine from Microsoft, due as early as next year.
"It'll make their jobs more fun and consumers will get better results from us and them," he promised.
While conceding that his Windows desktop operating system had become a "very powerful standard," he said Microsoft was more open today about its source code to allow other companies to develop competing products. That was partly due, he said, to the rise of Linux and antitrust actions in the United States and Europe.
Gates said he thought Microsoft's team of software engineers was outrunning the hackers that have caused havoc by unleashing increasingly destructive viruses to attack networked computers.
He conceded, however, that it was a tough fight to stay ahead. "If only the bad guys would just do the same stuff they did last year," he moaned.
- AP