[rescue] Spam (was: Perverse Question)

[Kurt Mosiejczuk]

On Sat, 7 Jun 2003, Phil Stracchino wrote:

> On Sat, Jun 07, 2003 at 11:19:33AM -0400, Patrick Giagnocavo +1.717.201.3366
> wrote:
> > I guess this is going OT, but my opinion is that simply passing a law
> > that forging email headers is illegal would pretty much fix what needs
> > to be fixed.

On the other side of this, something as simple as outlawing forging
email headers hurts legitimate uses also.  How many people here have
"forged" the from header so that you can send email from your work
smtp server but get responses to your main personal account?

> I think that'll do about as much good as laws making murder, rape,
> robbery and arson illegal, or (perhaps a better analogy) laws making it
> illegal for criminals to possess firearms.  Just as criminals don't obey
> laws, neither do spammers.

At the same time, it might be nice to have spammers activity to be
illegal, not just distasteful as it is right now.  But the key would
be intelligently crafting a law, something which our legislature may
not be up to.

--Kurt