MailChannels Fights Spam by Delay

MailChannels Corporation, a Vancouver-based developer of next generation email infrastructure protection solutions, has developed a software product called Traffic Control in an effort to fight spam (unsolicited email). Spammers rely on sending large volumes of email in order to realize profits. The more emails sent in a shorter period of time, the greater the chance that an email recipient will open the unsolicited message and buy the advertised product. Traffic Control discourages spammers by allowing email administrators to delay an email server’s response time in accepting incoming messages, from several seconds to a couple of minutes. Most spammers, unlike legitimate email senders, cannot afford to wait during this delay and therefore will likely move on. MailChannels touts a growing customer base for Traffic Control, including government institutions and universities. Experts, however, argue that the more widely used Traffic Control is, the less effective it will become since spammers will eventually be forced to wait on, and send spam to, a majority of servers using such technology.

This entry first appeared in the April 19, 2007 edition of lawsof.com. For the status of the case, click here.