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The Direct Marketing Association has a national opt-out list. I'm on it, and that seems to turn off spam from legitimate US businesses. The remaining bozos probably won't get the message until the cops come knocking.

I think we're going to win this thing. There seem to be only a few hundred spammers left, most of whom are doing something that qualifies as fraud. Pushing for misdemeanor convictions on a few every year is probably enough to discourage them.

The DMA has an interesting Consumer FAQ page, which has some good information (although there is some propaganda mixed in, so read it with a grain of salt.)

For those who are suffering from telemarketers, you can call the National Opt-Out Center at 1-888-5OPT-OUT to be put on a no-calling list, or you can contact the Telephone Preference Service

There's not much information on getting off of email lists, but they do suggest the e-Mail Preference Service (e-MPS).

I used to get a lot of telemarketing calls, but about a year ago I started asking every caller to place me on their no-call list. Since then I've gotten far fewer calls. My spam, on the other hand, is increasing all the time. So far I've been able to keep it under control, but I'm going to keep the e-MPS in mind for the future. (Maybe I'll set up a new email account to test its effectiveness.)

Funny enough, they have a national name-removal service for SPAM, Snail-SPAM, and Tele-SPAM.

Try this URL: http://www.e-mps.org/en/ind_static.html.

Wait, wait, wait - you're joking, right? Have you ever gone door-to-door? That's hard phucking work, and it's for piss-poor pay. Get real - my e-mail address is for my communication. Unless I opt-in, I don't want you e-mailing me. The poor person who gets me over the phone gets a very simple "I don't do business over the phone" and a hangup. I wish there were an easier way to do that with e-mail. However, there are a few solutions:

SpamCop, which I use regularly.
The DMA, has its E-mail Prefence Service, which you have to renew each year, but seems to work (at least for me).
You can also contact Senator Wyden and tell him exactly what you think of his statement, and, while you're at it, send a message to each of your reps, too.

I think it's obvious to us all that spam is not equivalent to regular advertising - the First Amendment is designed to protect speech that is designed to be unpopular - in a political, religious, social and economic sense. For example, I despise the KKK, but they are protected by the First Amendment, and I respect that. I don't see spam falling under any of those categories, unless you view "Sarah Michelle Gellar Caught Giving Head" as a call for opporessed workers in Third World nations to unite (and, if you do, I think there's a serious problem with one of the two of us, and it ain't me).

For Wyden to say such a stupid remark is beyond me...and, I think, beyond the vast majority of us who understand "the new economy," spam, and the First Amendment (some of us did pay attention in school, Ron). So, I say, "Enough already."

For one year.

The DMA = hypocrisy.

Of course the real problem is the stupid idiots that respond to all the wonderful opporunaties they receive via e-mail. If just one idiot in a thousand responds that's more than plenty to keep the spam flowing.

One trick I've considered is to raise their cost of operation by mining all the spam I get from my hotmail account for 800 numbers and calling them from pay phones and wasting as much of their time as possible.

• Mailing list removal
• Telephone junk call removal
• Spam list removal

If you answer your phone with something other than "Hello", the "answering machine detector" in most telemarketing predictive dialers will hang up the call. Really. The "Hello detector" is dumb, but able to distinguish "Hello" from a longer message. Try answering with your name and you'll start hearing hang-ups.