Spam-free world in two years, says Gates

By CHARLES ARTHUR and NATASHA HARRIS

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has promised to rid the world of spam, or junk emails, within two years.

With spam now accounting for 40 per cent of all email traffic, Mr Gates said: "We believe that spam can and must be dramatically reduced."

In New Zealand, Associate Information Technology Minister David Cunliffe said finding a solution was a Government priority this year.

As much as half of New Zealand's emails could be spam, the Government says.

A spokesman for Telecom's Xtra internet provider, John Goulter, was hopeful that Microsoft, a working partner of Xtra, could stop the "huge problem" of spam.

The company's latest figures put spam levels at 50 per cent of all emails and 90 per cent of those sent from overseas.

"Spam levels are unacceptable and most users are getting increasingly annoyed about the amount of spam they receive," Mr Goulter said. "It puts an unnecessary burden on the whole network."

Xtra uses anti-spam software made by the US company Brightmail.

TelstraClear, which filters clear.net and paradise.net, found that 62 per cent of traffic last month was spam, most of it from overseas.

Mr Gates outlined to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, three plans for stopping the wave of emails - much of them hawking porn - including tougher laws and fines for spammers.

Software could include "human challenges", which force the email sender to solve a puzzle or the computer sending the message to do a simple computation.

This would be easy for a machine sending a few emails, but expensive and difficult when sending many.

The ultimate solution would be to make senders of email pay a fee if their mail was rejected as spam.

"Payment at risk," the electronic equivalent of a stamp, would not deter genuine emailers confident their mail would be accepted, Mr Gates said.

But his optimism contrasts with others in the industry, who fret that the explosion in unsolicited email could gum up the internet.

One problem is that the amount of spam is rocketing. As spam-blocking software becomes more sophisticated, spammers have to send more to achieve their target reply rate.

Virus-writers have teamed up with spammers to create a "zombie network" of broadband PCs around the world, which are used to push out spam around the clock.

Tens of thousands of broadband PCs, which are always connected at high speed, have been infected with viruses that make them pump out thousands of junk emails every day without the owners knowing.

Some countries have enacted anti-spam legislation. British judges can impose fines of up to £5000 ($13,500) if a spammer sends emails to someone who has opted not to receive them, but the law does not cover businesses.

A European ban on unsolicited emails was introduced in 2002, but it is weakly enforced.

The NZ Government expects to introduce legislation this year to combat spam.

Mr Cunliffe said: "I'm in discussions with the Minister of Justice [Phil Goff] about various legislation options that will be considered over the next few months."

Mr Cunliffe was pushing for an "opt in" law, meaning commercial emails could be sent only to people who have indicated they are willing to receive them.

Australia and some European countries have used the "opt in" approach in their spam legislation.

Internet watchdog Internet NZ has set up a taskforce to advise on the problem.

It said it was possible to get rid of spam within two years, but only with international co-operation.

Executive director Pete Macaulay said the best solution would be to use better filters and better white-listing of mail to track back who sent it.

"We think it's great that Bill Gates is coming out and taking action against spam but it requires more than just Microsoft, as not everyone uses their products."

New Zealand needed to work with direct marketing associations to decide which was legitimate commercial email.

TelstraClear spokesman Mathew Bolland said: "Behind the scenes it's getting a lot worse." If the company removed its spam filters, the email system would run "incredibly slowly and in some cases be unusable".