May 31, 2007Spam and a 'clean slate' for the InternetComing Sunday: Any individual who engages in and profits from the practice of invading and clogging computers with junk e-mail ought to be prosecuted as severely as the concocter of any criminal conspiracy. The arrest this week of “Spam King” Robert Alan Soloway for allegedly using “botnets,” networks of computers, to send out millions of spam e-mails, is a welcome sign in the fight against computer crime. But some other nefarious n'er do well is likely lurking, ready to take his place. The university researchers who want to scrap the Internet and start over clearly are onto something.
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May 31, 2007
Spam and a 'clean slate' for the Internet
Coming Sunday: Any individual who engages in and profits from the practice of invading and clogging computers with junk e-mail ought to be prosecuted as severely as the concocter of any criminal conspiracy.
The arrest this week of “Spam King” Robert Alan Soloway for allegedly using “botnets,” networks of computers, to send out millions of spam e-mails, is a welcome sign in the fight against computer crime. But some other nefarious n'er do well is likely lurking, ready to take his place.
The university researchers who want to scrap the Internet and start over clearly are onto something.
Comments
[June 1, 2007 11:23 AM]
terryLet’s not get ahead of ourselves.
I completely agree that spyware and garbonzos strategically placed on a person’s pooter without that person’s permission is an invasion. I completely agree that any ‘spam’ electronic mail carrying these invasions is unacceptable. I completely agree that the people responsible should face consequences. However, non-laced ‘spam’ electronic mail is nothing different than the junk I get in my real world mailbox. It’s just advertising. I don’t read my ‘spam’ electronic mail. I have a filter. Don’t read it and it won’t bother you. Delete it the same way you throw away your real world mail. People are making a living off of perfectly acceptable ‘spam’ electronic mail and some people are making a living off of unacceptable electronic mail. Realize the difference.
If someone spikes my pooter with some program that registers my electronic mailing address all over the place and I start receiving numerous electronic mails a minute I have a problem with that. If I buy something from the World Wide Web and that store sends me a notice of an upcoming sale a few months later I don’t have a problem with that (even if I’m not interested in sale). Both electronic mails are ‘spam’. You can’t make one of them ‘illegal’ without making both of them ‘illegal’.
There is no reason to get the U.S. government involved (especially since this is an Earth issue) when we all know the pooter geeks are far better at solving problems. As I said, I have a filter that the geeks gave me. I don’t even hardly see anymore ‘spam’. In a couple of years I’ll never see it. The good geeks will fight with the bad geeks and the good geeks will win. If you pit the bad geeks against the U.S. government the bad geeks will reign supreme.
Please explain it to me: you’re logic is that ‘you’ don’t like most or all or some ‘spam’ so ‘you’ want to make it illegal. If I use that logic then romantic comedies would be illegal.
Note: apologies for any grammatical errors.
[June 3, 2007 8:19 PM]
JackAgreed,
I get tons of spam in my real-world mailbox, too. I doubt that will ever be legislated away, though, as the USPS actually gets paid to deliver it.