The death of spam, once predicted by the likes of Microsoft's Bill Gates, as well as numerous analysts, doesn't look like it will come anytime soon, according to forecasts made Thursday by IDC.

By 2008, the Framingham, Mass.-based research firm forecasted, worldwide revenues of anti-spam solutions -- software and hosted services -- will run to $1.7 billion. In 2003, the last full year for which hard numbers are available, anti-spam spending was only $300 million.

"Whether the next several years will show continued improvements in effectiveness, accuracy, and reducing the costs of spam will depend on how quickly and well anti-spam solutions keep up with the latest spam innovations," said Brian Burke, a research manager for IDC, in a statement.

Global anti-spam revenues will grow at a compound annual rate of 42 percent through 2008, said IDC, an amazing increase in IT, which overall isn't projected to reach even the low end of double-digit growth during that period.

IDC's prognostication comes on the heels of a report from a rival research firm that spam costs -- including software, management time, and lost user productivity -- will hit $50 billion this year.