I think all this just goes to reinforce the complete brokenness of e-mail to date.
While the proposals for requesting proof of opt-in via SHA hashes and such seem technically feasable, I think it pretty quickly breaks down when you think about how much cost and overhead that would put on GoDaddy (or law enforcement) to manage.
Think about the volume of spam out there. Then imagine a very tiny fraction of that being reported. Each one of those would require validation. While you could automate all the SHA sum comparison stuff, I don't think you could easily automate the validation of whether the opt-in mechanism was appropriate. If the sender indicates there was an opt-in, the validator must still confirm with the complainant whether that is a true claim. Without that, the system is useless because the spammer just keeps a SHA sum for each of the addresses they've purchased and supplies them along with an "Yes they opted in!" claim.
Manually validating the opt-in mechanism would require lots of manpower, and more importantly, a common and universally agreed upon set of rules for how opt-in should work. There are all sorts of nuance in the way there. Should it be a double confirmation? Does existing business relationship count? If so, what are all the rules regarding what constitutes such a relationship? What about unsubscribing afterward?
Edit: Removing the pessimistic and un-useful concluding paragraph on the hunch that was what warranted downvotes.
While the proposals for requesting proof of opt-in via SHA hashes and such seem technically feasable, I think it pretty quickly breaks down when you think about how much cost and overhead that would put on GoDaddy (or law enforcement) to manage.
Think about the volume of spam out there. Then imagine a very tiny fraction of that being reported. Each one of those would require validation. While you could automate all the SHA sum comparison stuff, I don't think you could easily automate the validation of whether the opt-in mechanism was appropriate. If the sender indicates there was an opt-in, the validator must still confirm with the complainant whether that is a true claim. Without that, the system is useless because the spammer just keeps a SHA sum for each of the addresses they've purchased and supplies them along with an "Yes they opted in!" claim.
Manually validating the opt-in mechanism would require lots of manpower, and more importantly, a common and universally agreed upon set of rules for how opt-in should work. There are all sorts of nuance in the way there. Should it be a double confirmation? Does existing business relationship count? If so, what are all the rules regarding what constitutes such a relationship? What about unsubscribing afterward?
Edit: Removing the pessimistic and un-useful concluding paragraph on the hunch that was what warranted downvotes.