[cumbria_lug] Proposal for dealing with spam

[Michael Saunders]

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004, Schwuk wrote:
>
> The main problem I can see is jurisdiction. It would require all
> conutries to buy into this law, and that's not likely to happen.

Not sure about that -- I think it'd have an effect in whatever
countries the laws took effect. For instance, if the USA, Canada and
European nations started doing this, the responses to spam would
decrease in these countries. Consequently, it becomes less profitable
for spammers to operate in these countries -- they'd then focus on the
places which DIDN'T have such laws in place.

So it'd be in the interests of individual countries to implement this;
otherwise, they'd become havens for spammers. Entrapment is a problem,
but the penalty wouldn't necessarily have to be legal -- instead, it
could be loss of ISP account etc. There are other complications too,
and a guy on the LXF forum brought up some valid problems with it, but
I still reckon we have to deal with this in terms of the spam-repliers
and not spammers themselves.

It's either a system like this, or massive overhaul of the email
protocols, servers and clients. The gigantic concerted effort required
to eliminate spam in that way is unrealistic; at best, it'd take many
years to accomplish. But if we try to stop people responding to spam,
thus making the spammer's work longer, harder and less likely to make
money, the easier and quicker we can deal with the problem.

M

-- 
Michael Saunders
www.aster.fsnet.co.uk