SMTP has had this for a long time: it's called STARTTLS; certificate-based authentication. The problem is that spammers will just generate certs after every Email they send, so it doesn't do all that much good without some higher intervention -- hence lawsuits, proposed federal bills, etc.
Sadly, I completely and entirely disagree that spam is "part of the Internet." I resided happily during the early days of post-Arpanet ('90-91); there was no "spam." If you said "spam," you were referring to either the physical product or a Monty Python skit. The Internet "worked" then without spam, and it sure as hell can work now without it.
Did "we" -- as in the general inhabitants of residences and owners of telephone services -- demand and create telemarketing calls? Absolutely. I most definitely remember saying to my immediate family, my peers, and the occasional Schmoe on the street: "HEY! Wouldn't it be a blast if we had some random schmuck trying to push a product down our throats while we're in the middle of dinner? What a fantastic idea! It's so fantastic, it should become a pre-requisite to owning a telephone!"
Simply owning a mailbox or P.O. box does not warrant me receiving thousands of unsolicited newspaper advertisements (complete with coupons!) either.
It's all unsolicited, which means it's unwarranted, which means it's essentially rape. I'm out on a limb with that comparison, but it's to the point where it needs to dealt with in the same manner. Spammers do what they do because there's nothing in the way of them doing it -- that doesn't make it right, fair, moral, nor legal.
If you think I'm blowing hot air,
check this out. The video pretty much sums up the attitude of spammers: and it's one that needs to be squashed.
(Ed.: Added TechTV MPEG link)
