[rescue] Spam (was: Perverse Question)

[Sheldon T. Hall]

 Curtis H. Wilbar Jr. writes ...
>From: "Sheldon T. Hall" <shel at cmhcsys.com>
> >
> >Until they apply the "illegal access" laws and make spamming a crime, and
> >the knowing transmission of it a civil offense, those of us who must be
> >available will continue to seek technological defenses.
>
> And even then since so much spam is relayed off of open proxies (primarily
> misconfigured Korean proxy servers) which eompltely hides the source, as
> long as those methods of spamming without leaving a trail are open, spam
> will continue to flourish.

Yes, and that's where the "knowing transmission" part comes in.  US law
can't do much about open relays in .ko and .my, but they _can_ do something
about the .us networks that carry the resulting traffic.  I expect that the
network operators in .kr and .my would close those relays fast, or shut down
those customers, once they found out that they couldn't exchange packets
with .us because the .us networks didn't want to get prosecuted for "knowing
transmission."

IMHO, the .us networks that carry that traffic are just "fences" for the
thieves abroad.

> Now if the law can target the companies that the spam is sent for.... and
> not just the spammer.... then maybe they will be more effective.

Would that it could ... but it would be tough.  Chevy sends out covert spam
advertising Ford, Ford gets prosecuted ... nah, too much potential for
unintended consequences.

-Shel