California Bans Mobile Phone Spam

Argyle writes "News.com is reporting that California has banned the spamming of pagers and mobile phones with unwanted text messages."

Comments

Finally, someone had to do it

[Sir Bard]

I just got one of these calls on my phone and it irked me to no end. I hope there will be legislation against email spam soon too.

3rd post

[Anonymous Coward]

thats right, 3rd POST!!! I AM THE BITCH!!!

mobile fones give you eye cancer

First Post

[MooseGuy529]

That's very good--I don't live in CA but I have gotten spammed a couple of times on a cell phone.

Keep at it!

--Tom

Re:First Post

[nexex]

this reminds of when I get a new cell phone not too long ago, who ever had the number previously had every 'alert' imaginable mailed to his phone. The company (verizon) was unable to stop the flood of news and weather, courtesy of msn, i was recieving and had to issue me a new number.

Re:First Post

[babtrek]

Now only if they could ban telemarketers, and email spam the world would be a better place. All of us will be so much happier that we dont awnser the phone just to get some one annoying us and wasting our lives. Also it would be nice to see a nation wide anti-cellphone spam ban, but calif. was a great start.

Not just text messages...

[therealmoose]

The article also says that he signed bills to fight junk fax and expidiate do not call lists. Sounds like a great step forward for privacy and anti-stupidity laws!

Re:Not just text messages...

[srw]

I wonder how it deals with cross-border spam. That still seems to me to be the biggest problem to deal with.

Re:Not just text messages...

[packeteer]

IANAL but i think it would make it illegal to spam from another state but from another country might be difficult to enforce.

Re:Not just text messages...

[axxackall]

This problem is much bigger than just a spam. We beging to live in the world of global technologies and global markets. Global here means international. How are you going to enforce anything internationally when the powerest country in the world ignores International Crime Court?

All such laws will fail until we'll have a *WORKING* and international legal system. Better spend resource on it, rather than on local-wide legal "patches".

SP

[Anonymous Coward]

SECOND POST HUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! DORRRRRRRRRRRR !!!! BGasofndgsoiazozvokoz~!sg nojsdgpinzjvlknz nkj /nasofnkjvxlzxkmwpiwr Meowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww :) L) :) \;) :) kekekekekekekekekkekekekekk kma

- The Anonymous Coooowwwward

Known Hosts

[messiertom]

Why not make messages only be accepted from known "hosts" (phone numbers)? Rather like /etc/hosts.allow, but for mobile phones.

Does such a system exist?

Re:Known Hosts

[quackPOT]

Try explaining the concept to the end users. Your idea would only open a nightmare of support issues and generate many more calls to the help desk/customer support.

Re:Known Hosts

[messiertom]

Simple, it's only a few steps:

1) Go to your menu
2) Go to "Instant Messaging" (or whatever it's called)
3) Scroll down to "Allow List"
4) Scroll to "Add"
5) Add the phone number of the cell-phone you wish to have call you.

You could even just have it accept messages from all users, and have this "allow list" be an "advanced user" feature. It would of course, all be documented somewhere.

Re:Known Hosts

[quackPOT]

What about all the phones that just get simple emails and don't have/use IM? I get a random spam once in a blue moon via myphonenumber@myphonehost.com. There is nothing in the menu to allow for blocking that stuff (or IM for that matter)

Re:Known Hosts

[messiertom]

Exactly - what I'm pushing for is an implementation of this sort of thing.

Re:Known Hosts

[quackPOT]

good luck

Re:Known Hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

NTT Docomo have been using this sort of system for about a year. Basically it allows 3 levels:

1. Allow email from all domains + mobile phones.
2. Allow email from a user list of domains (slashdot.com etc..) + mobile phones.
3. Allow email from mobile phones only

I use the 2nd method, I have a 5 digit @docomo address and have never had a single spam.

Re:Known Hosts

[singularity]

it would be really nice to have an option to only recieve messages from phone numbers stored in your phone's phone book.

My Samsung SCH-3500 allows for different rings based on whether the caler has CallerID or not. I would like to be able to change the ring type (OR VOLUME) based on whether it is in the phone book (the phone already looks the number up to see if it has a listing for that number).

Seems trivial to implement.

Everyone!

[$0 31337]

I just wanted to invite everyone to use my brand new web site www.spamcalifornianscellphones.com to send out any ads for your compan... wait... awwwww shit.

State-law system.

[Fantanicity]

So what does this ban?

Californians in California spamming other Californians in California?
Californians in California spamming other Californians anywhere?
Californians in California spamming anyone in California?
Californians in California spamming anyone anywhere?
Californians anywhere spamming other Californians in California?
Californians anywhere spamming anyone in California?
Anyone in California spamming Californians in California?
Anyone anywhere spamming Californians in California?
Anyone in California spamming anyone in California?
Anyone in California spamming anyone anywhere?

And several other permutations?

Re:State-law system.

[*xpenguin*]

And several other permutations?

No, I think you got every single one.

Re:State-law system.

[saskboy]

Obviously the only posibilities are spam ending [passing through] or begining in California, and the chrages are only valid in the state of CA.

Re:State-law system.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok... somebody's gettin metamoderated.

California Laws

[z_gringo]

Here is another example of well-meaning, yet relatively irrelevant laws being passed. California seems to be really good at that, although some of their "unusual" laws seem to work out quite nicely.

Did I just say "relatively irrelevant"?

Re:California Laws

[messiertom]

Yes, but I thought you said "relevantly irrelevant" at first. :)

Re:California Laws

[fmaxwell]

Here is another example of well-meaning, yet relatively irrelevant laws being passed.

I disagree. This is a valuable, pro-active attempt to keep Californians from being forced to pay for spam sent to their cell phones and pagers.

Remember that, unlike the Internet, there are long-distance charges to call cell phones from out of area. Since spammers are bottom feeders that look for ways to pay nothing for their advertising, the vast majority of the spam would come from in-state. Thus, there would be no question of jurisdiction, extradition, etc. in most cases.

Re:California Laws

[Anonymous Coward]

No kidding. Irrelevant? I'm in CA and I just got a cell phone, and I can see the relevance a mile away.

Re:California Laws

[EvilStein]

Right, except that you don't get charged long distance when it's a text message.
Some carriers charge per text message. Verizon and ATTWS are the only two that I can recall that do not charge you for incoming text messages, and I might be wrong about Verizon...

Re:California Laws

[groke]

Verizon charges me 2 cents to receive a message, and 10 to send one. they also have "monthy plans" which are packages of 100 (send or receive) for $1.99 or something like that.

I signed up about 3 months ago, some of their older calling plans may have included SMS-type service free of charge, but I don't know

Note to self...

[extagboy]

Stop planned cell phone spamming campaign and instead walk up to people with bullhorn explaining how they can win free stuff and save thousands on their mortgage.

Re:Note to self...

[mickwd]

Will you be walking up to guys on the street with a bullhorn and asking: "Sir, I can tell you might be interested in having a larger penis. Or how about some cheap viagra ? Wanna see some naked teens ?"

Re:Note to self...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah- because thats just as cheap and scalable as spam.

KISS MY ASS, F�HRER MICHAEL

[Anonymous Coward]

sounds like a good opportunity

[NotAnotherReboot]

this sounds like an excellent opportunity for me to sell legal services and products via cell phone messages to make sure this law works as it should, obviously I would have an opt-out number to call just in case you don't want to hear about these various services.

Skepticism Time

[Coffee Warlord]

Is this really going to change anything? How many laws do we have either in creation or already existing vs email spam? Has the amount of spam lessened?

How easy is it for a spammer (by any market) to just move their base of operations to another area, where there are no such laws? How are you going to enforce this?

Really, I could declare a ban on any obnoxious thing in our world, and god knows there are plenty of such things. Enforcing most of them would be an absolute nightmare, assuming anyone even bothers to try.

Re:Skepticism Time

[silverhalide]

Unlike spam, which uses easiyl forged e-mail headers making it near impossible to trace, text messenging goes through the phone system and CAN be traced back to the orginiator rather trivially. I'm assuming SMS can't be easily forged. This makes such a law much much easier to enforce, as the phone company can simply look to see where the messages are coming from, and make it easier to fine the appropriate people.

Re:Skepticism Time

[Fantanicity]

SMS can be traced ... until people start running open relays

Re:Skepticism Time

[tomstdenis]

Then you just charge the owners of open relays. In all technicality if you relay spam then you are also sending spam.

Its possible to setup redudant servers that are not completely open [in the sense anyone can send from it without a priori knowledge]

Tom

Re:Skepticism Time

[cmallinson]

Unlike spam, which uses easiyl forged e-mail headers making it near impossible to trace, text messenging goes through the phone system and CAN be traced back to the orginiator rather trivially.

In order to send a text message to my pager or cell phone, you just need to send an email to 5555551234@text.myphonecompany.com and it comes through as a text message. So forged headers would work just as well here. I make sure that I don't give out that address to anyone, but it would not be hard to send a message out to all known cellular exchanges within my area code.

Re:Skepticism Time

[Billly Gates]

The spammers will just move to las vegas or some place just outside the califorian border. Here in the Vegas there are hundreds of companies that hack the phone system so those with caller id's can not track them. My girlfriend use to work at a catalog company and telemarketed. I do wonder how they do it. I have caller-id and can not track down spammers. Alot of states have numbers we can dial to block out the spammers but since they hire hackers to find work-arounds, they do not work. My guess is all the californian spam companies will just move across the border and continue to spam as normal.

How will they regulate this?

[Lardmonster]

Sure, it's a fine idea. I can't spam on the mobile, even though it's switched off most of the time.

But how will they regulate this? How will they dentify the offenders?

Nice idea, but probably unworkable unfortunately :-(

Re:How will they regulate this?

[Lardmonster]

Arse - that should have read "I can't stand spam on the mobile..."

[Sorry - I'm rather pissed]

Re:How will they regulate this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Simple: after you get spam, you will report sender to the authorities.

That's Just Special

[zentec]

The article did not state the penalties involved if you are guilty of spamming pagers and cell phones, but the sad fact is that I'm sure they are woefully inadequate.

In Michigan, there's a law on the books concerning junk faxes. Yes, it's illegal to send unsolicited faxes of any sort in the state of Michigan. The penalty? $500 or the cost of the supplies used in receiving the fax *which ever is less*.

C'mon, what a toothless law.

Spam, junk faxes all fall into the "weather" category in as much as "everyone complains about the weather, but no one seems to do anything about it". Well fellow consumers, unlike the weather, you *can* do something about it.

It's quite simple. Don't do business with companies that engage in such practices. Let them know, and vote with your wallet.

Unfortunately, sheeple continue to tolerate practices that they readily acknowledge as annoying.

Vote with your wallet.

Re:That's Just Special

[kaxman]

I do. Although we've reached a level of saturation in this country that's gotten us pretty much to the point where people don't even SEE advertisements, especially online. I don't know...I just can't see people actually clicking on ads, or responding to unsolicited mail...do they? I don't understand people who do; hell, I can't even envision it...

Re:That's Just Special

[wik]

Does the cost of supplies include the fax machine or computer that is receiving the fax? Or is it just the consumable supplies?

Re:That's Just Special

[balloonhead]

It'd be interesting if someone argued that receipt of a junk fax cost them over $500 (otherwise the law would be a little pointless with "whichever is less" - should be "whichever is more".

You could easily argue that while the cost of: paper and toner for one fax is trivial, the cost of replacing paper and toner, man hours reading the fax, electricity, man hours deciding the fax is spam, deleting it, reporting it to the authorities, going through the legal process thereafter, maintainence of fax machine and a thousand other tiny things (apart from the man-hours and wasted productivity thing which could be quite large) would add up to a hefty sum (at east $500) and then the law might have some bite.

Great First Step!

[philovivero]

This is a great first step. I hope the government has the balls to ban email spam, too.

I want an email spam law that allows me to charge for equipment, storage, and my time used to stop the spam. Since I'm a DBA, that should come to roughly $1,000 per spam, give or take a couple hundred dollars.

Re:Great First Step!

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh, what are they going to start the National Spam Control Center, and have someone read each email for me to decide if its spam or not? I hope not. Mac OS X's Mail.app does an awesome job of filtering junk mail. I'd imagine there are similar programs for other platforms. And if not..well..yet another reason to switch@!

Mirror of article

[Anonymous Coward]

In case of slashdotting:

Calif. bans mobile phone spam

By Lisa M. Bowman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
September 20, 2002, 9:52 AM PT

California's mobile phones should soon be officially freed from unwanted text messages.

On Thursday, Gov. Gray Davis signed a bill that would prohibit companies from spamming mobile phones and pagers with unwanted text messages. The law, sponsored by Assemblyman Tim Leslie, R-Tahoe City, goes into effect in January.

Davis said he endorsed the plan because he didn't want unsolicited messages on mobile phones to reach the same level of mayhem that spam e-mails have.

Click Here!

"These days, telemarketers and advertisers are intruding on everything--our home phones, our cell phone, our fax machines and our pagers," Davis said in a statement. "Today, California cuts the line on unsolicited faxes, phone calls and text messages."

Representatives from the wireless and text messaging industry did not immediately return requests for comment.

Davis also signed two other tech privacy bills, including one that would mandate stricter junk fax laws and another designed to speed the creation of a "do not call" list.

Email shall use whitelists

[0x0d0a]

Barring some major architectural changes, I'm strongly suspecting that eventually email is going to be an opt-in service, where each user has a whitelist of people allowed to email him, just as some messaging clients do today.

Re:Email shall use whitelists

[digitalsushi]

you're absolutely right. some of us implement this with procmail and various other filters already. it works 100% of the time. it is the future. now i'm going to spoil it. we'll all spend more time on keeping the white lists current than deleting spam.

Re:Email shall use whitelists

[0x0d0a]

We'll have easy to manage stuff. How long do you spend managing your IM client's whitelist? Manually writing procmail scripts takes much longer...

And I could see a web of trust, if not as peer-based as PGP, at least a hierarchical one.

Re:Email shall use whitelists

[Anonymous Coward]

I do a similar thing with the mail filters on my client. First, I match the mail addresses I know and sort them to the proper folder. Then, instead of deleting all other messages, I match them against words in the subject line or sender that are synonymous with junk. Every time a spam gets through, I pick out a particular word and add it to the filter.

It's gotten so good that even though 60% of my email is spam, I rarely see any of it, and most legitimate email that is from unrecognized addresses still gets through.

It would be interesting if I could keep track of which words got matched, e.g. 70% matched the keyword "viagara", 20% matched "mortgage", etc.

I'VE GOT IT!

[Have Blue]

I'll start my own business registering cell phones in California and selling them nationwide! Oh, and I've also patented this idea.

Re:I'VE GOT IT!

[Anonymous Coward]

You submitted a business plan in the wrong format!

It should have been:

1. Register cell phones in California
2. ?????
3. Profit!
4. Get sued for patent infringement

um, ok...

[jpellino]

if it's as effective as the ban on junk faxes, then who cares?

Re:um, ok...

[the_quark]

Actually, it looks like they fixed the fax law in California, too. The fax law he signed basically undoes the CA fax law (which was awful), which replaces it with the Federal version (which is tougher).

I wish I could find some details on the penalties for the phone spam law, though. I currently get about one phone spam a month (usually at 4am, of course).

Interesting question: If they spam my phone's email address, can I get them for the anti-phone-message violation even though spam isn't prohibited? If so, it might be worth getting a throwaway phone just to go after the spammers...

You missed:

[0x0d0a]

Anyone anywhere spamming Californians anywhere.

Though I think it's a safe bet to say that it doesn't cover it.

Re:You missed:

[loxosceles]

No, that's not covered. States don't have some magical jurisdiction over events just because they involve someone who has a residence in the State. Only sovereigns (like the U.S.) have jurisdiction over citizens when they're outside the country.

Stephen King, author, dead at 54

[Anonymous Coward]

I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Horror/Sci Fi writer Stephen King was found dead in his Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.

Re:Stephen King, author, dead at 54

[Anonymous Coward]

He was 55. Have some respect for the dead by getting his age correct.

WAIT A SEC... DO YOU HAVE SEX WITH GOATS?

[Anonymous Coward]

In other news, ...

[fire-eyes]

In other news, congress passed a law which prohibits spam via email and faxes.

Re:In other news, ...

[pediddle]

Are you joking, or do you have a link? If you aren't joking, then I'm sure we'd all appreciate some more information. If you are joking, then, um, I don't get it..

Mod me up: on-topic comment below

[Anonymous Coward]

Moblie Phone Spam

California is going a lot to preempt .. vermillion

[Anonymous Coward]

I get faxes. I get voice mail. I get calls. And I also hear the souls of the dead who were murdered by Islam.

DEATH TO ISLAM
Hi clitoris choppers. You Islamic fucking animals. I hate you you pull-start camel jockey. Towelheads, Camel Jockies, Sand Niggers, Ackmids, Abeebs, Carpet Flyers, Dune Coons, Rag Heads, Sand Scratchers, Habeebs, Abba-Dabbas, Camel-Humpers, Demi-niggers, Fig-Gobblers, Hucka-luckas (hucka hlacka ghalcka ghugh), Lefties (If you steal, you lose the right hand so, since they are thieves...) Ocnods, Pull-Start-ables (imagine pull starting Ossama's dirty rag like a Briggs and Stratton), Roach-Ranchers (habibs cant kill roaches by a tenant of Is-slum), Sand Moolies.

Take home a bucket from KFC. Kabul fried chumps. Abra ca dabra! Shazam!

Shut up all you dirty fucking islamic pigfucking swinehundts.

Take your fucking Koran and cram it up your ass. The sooner the earth sees Islam leave it, the better off it will be. Your Koran is Goat Piss.

I hope if there is a God and a Hell, you have to drink the liquidy shit from a Pig's ass, and Jewish Rabbis defecate on you.

I hate the stupid ISLAM fucks who read into the trash they come up with. Saddam Hussein [who needs to take a dirt nap] is higher on my sanity list than fucking Muslim "clerics." In fact, I like Saddam more than most of the other Arab leaders because he is secular. We should fucking nuke the Saudis and Mecca and Medina and turn it into rubble, then tell Saddam to remove the heads of all the buttfucking "royalty" in the area.

I want to wipe my ass with Mohammad's shroud. I want to grind his body up into bone meal and fertilize my garden with it.

Our tortured dead scream out in HORROR, asking for vengeance:

1. Kill all Camel Jockeys.
2. Kill all Mohammedans.
3. Kill all Dune Coons.
4. Kill all Rag Heads.
5. Kill all Towelheads.
6. Kill all Arabs.
7. Kill all Camel Rooters.
8. Kill all Osama Bin Laden supporters.

Nuke their countries to hell.
Nuke them again.
Death to Islam.

I piss on Mecca. I wipe my ass with the Koran. I shit upon Mohammed. I wipe the cum for a freshly fucked pussy with Mohammed's shroud then throw it in the pig sty so it can mire in pig shit as it decomposes.

OK

[Anonymous Coward]

So who's gonna be the first stupid fucker claiming that this stops free speech?

Re:OK

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be you.

Sounds good, but enforcement will be tough

[igotmybfg]

I get tons of shit in my inbox right now, and I can't trace most of it. BNCs, forged headers, anonymous proxies. It is basically impossible to determine where an email really came from if the sender is knowledgeable and doesn't want you to know. So, like the the laws in Virginia that make porn illegal if it passes through any pipe or computer in the state, these new laws are technically uunenforceable. So while it is a step in the right direction, it is still not really effective.

Re:Sounds good, but enforcement will be tough

[maunleon]

Submit it to Spamcop.net. As a bonus, it will do the analysis of the email for you (if you submit it over the web instead of email).

And you will be doing the rest of us a favor.

you mean to tell me...

[xo0m]

...that you can't get spam on ur mobile phone from other states? if only all states enforced this it would actually make a difference.

Re:you mean to tell me...

[Anonymous Coward]

when is that wonderful ham company going to stand up for its rights and sue everyone for abusing their GOOD NAME in the description of junk mail. Really people.

Re:you mean to tell me...

[Fantanicity]

We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE

Does anyone actually GET much cell phone spam?

[Micah]

I have a Nokia 8250 with AT&T, and I've only gotten one or two "spams" from AT&T itself. Doesn't seem like it's a huge problem at this point...

Re:Does anyone actually GET much cell phone spam?

[myspys]

yes,
but guess it depends on which network you're on and in which country you live in.

know that vodafone here in the uk are SCARILY evil when it comes to sms-spam.

Re:Does anyone actually GET much cell phone spam?

[dotgod]

Maybe it's not a problem at this point...but "[Gov.] Davis said he endorsed the plan because he didn't want unsolicited messages on mobile phones to reach the same level of mayhem that spam e-mails have." The whole point is to nip it in the bud.

Re:Does anyone actually GET much cell phone spam?

[dgulbran]

And that is why it should be banned now... you would rather wait until your phone is littered with hundreds of Spam messages to do something? Kinda like e-mail...

Re:Does anyone actually GET much cell phone spam?

[Anonymous Coward]

On Cingular I get approx 2 a month.

Re:Does anyone actually GET much cell phone spam?

[Anonymous Coward]

None so far with T-mobile, but had an annoying "message from Catherine Zeta-Jones" once when trying to cheeck voicemail. Hanging up before it kicked in, then redialing voicemail, seemed to get rid of it.

Re:Does anyone actually GET much cell phone spam?

[Billly Gates]

I get around 10 a week. Almost all recordings. I live in spam capital las vegas where the laws are the weakest so perhaps that is the reason. It is out of control here.

Re:Does anyone actually GET much cell phone spam?

[ColaMan]

I've only ever gotten one piece of spam on my phone in Australia.

Telstra (an .au phone co.) got into some trouble when they sent a pre-recorded voice message to all their customers about some crap new network feature they added... it wouldn't have been too interesting, except they also *charge* you for using the voicemail service.

So, about 800,000 people get a voicemail message, and spend 20c individually to get it , only to find out it's just spam from the damn phone company. 800,000 people grumbling, "f***ing sleazy ripoff telstra!", had quite an effect. Made it into the TV news a few days in a row, and Telstra got a smack and a fine from the ACCC (.au's consumer watchdog) and was forced to issue grovelling apologies and a refund.

First and last case of Phone spam in Australia it seems.

Yes , this is a little off-topic, and probably only applies if you get charged for receiving messages (CompuServe, anyone?) , but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Keep at it

[0x0d0a]

Keep at it! ...finish getting rid of those outside irritations and band cell phones entirely!

YACH -- Yet Another Cell Hater

Help me

[Anonymous Coward]

Help me

Re:Help me

[Anonymous Coward]

Stick something about thornbury ADSL registration in the title, fool :P. maybe more people will actually look at it then :). Oh ye, people of Rothwell (and surrounding villages) register too, please

rant...

[Cyno01]

please, please dont use the term anti-stupidity laws, every day more and more common sense is being replaced by laws, and if theres one thing most people need more of, its common sense, people will asume if theres no law against it, it must not be bad or bad for them, my big example is the guy whos suing the fast food chains becuase he got fat, this guy deserves to have a massive cornary episode and be taken out of the gene pool if hes so stupid as to think eating burgers and fries every day and sitting on his ass isn't gonna make him fat, c'mon, do we really need a law requiring the food industry to tell us if we eat a lot of their products and dont excersice were gonna get even fatter, we need to use our heads, not the lawbooks

/end_rant

Re:rant...

[tomstdenis]

There are two sides to this

a) I do stupid things then sue the provides for my inability to control myself

b) Taking advantage of the lack of laws to exploit unwilling others.

So suing tabacco [while funny and overall product] falls under the former while sending out mass amounts of spam because its not illegal is the latter.

Tom

Forget SPAM laws...

[dmadole]

I am still waiting for them to share with the rest of the states their apparently endless knowledge of "substances known to the State of California to cause cancer."

Jive word of the day: Abortion

[JiveMofoDude]

Abortion: n. An absolute failure; Something which does not come to be;

"Ain't no way, no how dat boy be mine. He's such an abortion, he slidin' back up his mama's leg and leavin' a slug trail!"

MOD PARENT UP!

[Anonymous Coward]

+5 Informative!

What about

[Anonymous Coward]

> spamming of pagers and mobile phones

What about cellular phones?

Re:Tracking SMS messages is very easy to bypass

[justMichael]

OK, so if I send a message that goes through here and I have passed through say here how are you going to track the origin again??

obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

in a related story, the names of convicted spammers will be stored in a database purchased for roughly 1 gajillion dollars

email gateways

[Cyberop5]

I have an email forwarding setup so one can easily e-mail an address rather than knowing my phone number and provider. There is no way to know that its an SMS address. What kind of reward/compensation can i look forward to when i do start receiving spam? Is it even covered? I already get a newsletter from the email fwding provider that i don't want, and there is no way to have myself removed since the email gets cropped with the 160 char limit.

Re:California is going a lot to preempt .. vermill

[Anonymous Coward]

here is another example of censorship. the parent expresses grief with islam, he talks of california, and berkeley is rife with terrorst supporters. its ontopic. but you , the censoring moderators, take the crys of greif and anger and supress them

This is just another example of spineless crap moderation here on /.

Mao Tse Tung, Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Pinochet, Mussolini, Marshall Joseph Tito, Slobodan Milosevic, Idi Amin, Ho Chi Minh, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Qaddafi, Juan Peron, Ayatollah Khomeini, Ferdinand Marcos, General Suharto, Pol Pot, Fransisco Franco, and certainly the worst of the bunch, SLASHDOT's editing/moderating [read: censoring] "community"(*) ALL AGREE on ONE THING:

CENSORSHIP WORKS!

(*)Note, the word community used often on Slashdot, this is referring to a proto communist commune.

So, you busy little plebian proletariats, get busy, you have some censoring to do! FUN! Do the bidding of your fat, undisciplined masters who never subject themselves to peer review!

Good job you little neo-commies. Don't want to hear the other side, shoot the fucker in the head as an ENEMY OF THE STATE [In this case anyone who seeks to improve the sad state of /.].

I have a Gun and the Constitution [Not the urinated-on pissed-on hacked fucked up one WashingTOON thinks exists, I mean the real one, with Jefferson and Madison at my side], please, give me an excuse to use them both.

A few haikus to commemorate the sucktitude:
Crack Pipe Moderators
Crack smoke wafts though air
Dumb shit moderator!
Try to suck less, please

The Humorless Moderator
Crack smoke wafts through air
Humorless moderator!
Why do you hate me?

The Proletariat
Slashdotting Commie
Moderator fears new idea!
Censor him quickly

The reason China blocked Slashdot is that when Jiang Xemin saw at how good "The Editors" at Slashdot are at suppressing the community, he knew that if more of his party members saw this degree of suppressive efficacy, he would be deposed, for the good of the people, of course, in favor of Rob Malda as the all new supreme dictator and premier of China.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. - Sir Winston Churchill (Especially when your democratic peers twist democracy into a reason commit censorship, to squash dissenting or unpopular opinions, and refer to them as trolls, flaimbait overrated or offtopic when they aren't any of the said)

The reason there are two senators for each state is so that one can be the designated driver. - Jay Leno.

The Constitution poses no threat to our current form of government. (Death to those who defile the root documents of a free nation to make economic freedom Supercede Freedom! Freedom First! Free market Second!)

Occam's Razor "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." "Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate" "Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora" "Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem" Translation: " "Simple explanations are preferred to complex ones" Modern fucking translation "JUST DO IT."

Reading Slashdot at anything above -1 is like trying to put a shit filter on your ass.

Get busy moderating this down, you little pack of obedient prefects of the corrupt state! You are the vanguards of purity, and dissent is not allowed!

HAIKUS
MODERATORS Crack smoke wafts though air - Dumb shit moderator - Try to suck less, please
KAZAA Fuck R I A A - Network sold behind their backs - Stupid fucking cunts
Haiku: to the Slashfags. Fuck slash editors - The cumlicking fags they are - I shit upon them
TACO pondering GOATSE: I stare at the goat - His huge gaping ass so wide - And I want to eat
Haiku: The ancient haiku: - Flame Taco and CowboyNeal - With lame poetry.
CowboyNeal A mountain of fat, - butt cheeks jiggling like Jello. - What an odd poll choice!
CmdrTaco Watching Pokemon - With cum stuck on his goatee. - Newbie loser scum.
Stinky Kathleen Fent Cockeater Taco, - Proposing to Fent online, - I fingered her too.
Rob Malda and Kathleen FentChubby breasts, fat ass - Distract us from Rob's boylust. - But they both suck cock!
Taco Tuesday: Too much mexican. - Angry poo, firey hot. - Where's my antacid?
CHOAD licking Taco: Malda in the dark - Swallowing choad for profit - He rips his anus
Fuck KATZ Katz is a Jew - michael is a Mormon - Or is it Timothy?
Martini Fuck off That is fucking good. - I nearly spilt martini - On my nice trousers.
Slap my Ham, rub it off, fuck Spank fast wank it hard - Jerk that dick to Pokemon - Party at Taco's
GOAT I just came again - looking at the goat-see man - more kleenex required
Cock BIRD The Dead Penis Bird - Nailed to the member always - Never falling off
BSD Stare into the night - Sun is setting on your sys - BSD *NOT* dead
Michael Michael User Simms - Sifting through all our comments - Censoring bastard
Klerk Trolltalk hard to read - Information desires - Wideness for us all
Cobalt Really tired now - Off to masturbate to sleep - See you at the day
Humorless Moderator Crack smoke wafts through air - Humorless moderator - Why do you hate me?

Yet another step in the right direction... but...

[HaloZero]

They could still send you messages. I live in New York state, and, with our new telemarketer "do-not-call list" (circa 2000), the spammers still have the option to call us to try and make appointments, rather than outright selling their product. Just because they can't call to solicite their wares, they can still call to set up appointments to do the same. Which is lame. Very, very lame. I know that the frequency and magnitude of each call from each company is still increasing, atleast to my house, even with being on said list.

Spam should remain where it belongs; in the can, and on the shelf. Not in my face.

When will other states chime in?

[LowAmmoWarning]

The question is when will other states follow this? And what are the consequences of companies that do spam your cell phone with text messages? How will the average consumer be able to retaliate for the damages or money they have to pay for the text messages? Will it cost the average consumer too much money just to penalize companies for their transgressions when they do leave spamming text messages? In essence... is it really enforcable?

The bills' origins

[minesweeper]

According to the article from the San Francisco Chronicle,

"The measure banning unsolicited text messages to cell phones and pagers emerged after Assemblyman Tim Leslie, R-Tahoe City, read about the case of Rodney Joffe, who had been interrupted during a performance of "Riverdance" by a text message advertising new mortgage rates."

So, while spam messages on cell phones are still fairly rare, they are happening, and it was only a matter of time before it would have gotten out of hand. Links to the text of the bills Gov. Davis signed are below. How the state actually plans on enforcing the part on spam emails is anybody's guess.

SB 1560 - This bill creates a statewide "Do Not Call" list to be maintained by the attorney general.
AB 1769 - Here is the bill making it a crime to send unsolicited text messages to cell phones or pagers.
AB 2944 - Here is the bill closing a loophole in CA's junk fax law, and decreeing that all spam emails include "ADV:" at the beginning of the subject line or "ADV:ADLT" in the case of adult material.

Re:The bills' origins

[Registered Coward v2]

of Rodney Joffe, who had been interrupted during a performance of "Riverdance" by a text message advertising new mortgage rates."

Sounds like good targeted marketing - anyone watching Riverdance probably has the right IQ to fall for a spammer's pitch.

Re:The bills' origins

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is this guy's cell phone turned on during a performance?

Re: The bills' origins

[D4C5CE]

Unfortunately the SF Chronicle's article inaccurately also claims that

" Unlike with e-mail spam, however, consumers end up paying to read unsolicited ads sent to fax machines, cell phone and pagers, since many people pay per-message fees,and fax owners must buy paper, toner and phone lines."

If this distinction is supposed to make anny sense, one has to wonder since when Internet connectivity comes for free.

BTW, mobile spam may be rare right now where mobile messaging has just been introduced only recently, but figures from Japan where the e-mail address has been enabled on most mobile phones for a while already show to what heights that tide would rise:

"Of the 900 million messages that go through DoCoMo's servers each day, 880 million (98%) are spam, according to the company."

Re:The bills' origins

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who's watching Riverdance and leaves their cell-phone on you mean...

not that i like Riverdance but i hope the audience kicked the s*** out of that guy, just in case he ever attends a performance i'm at in the future - he'll already have learned his lesson

No More Crazy Californians

[OffTheRack]

I feel odd about this, but California is making sense. First they rule that programmers don't have to flip burgers for a living once they leave a technology employer, now this.

I guess I should say kudos.

A way out? Never.

[paja]

I suppose, that Operator can check IMEI and subscriber number on its SMS gateway, but this needs an integration of customer helpdesk (to report spam) and SMS gw staff (to ban it).

The other way how to spam is to go thru e-mail2sms gateways - these could be easily checked by operator (ordb etc.) and via customer helpdesk centre.

And here we have a problem no law can solve: my mobile operator spams me with ton of messages regarding any stupid marketing action (which I do not want to know of), but I've subscribed to interesting mail list (active police speed radar places via sms in realtime, nice) via email and this is filtered out as spam. And worse, any host used to forward these messages is banned from the network.

- the result: Do NOT choose T-Mobile anywhere in Europe.

I've made a change recently, but:

Still I get a TON OF SPAM from my own mobile operator. Do You think, that this is the law, that will provide anyone from stoping mobile operator from spamming its customers?

Have You read the "EULAs" (:-)? Something like: "...customer agrees to receive occasional messages pointing out new features of our glorious network?..." - can the law force operator not to send spam to the customer, who explicitly wants it?

--
paja

T-Mobile can filter text messages now

[lkk17]

T-Mobile customers can set up filters for their text messages on the company's web site (click on "My T-Mobile"). You can have messages blocked, forwarded to an email address, or accepted on your handset.

Re: Mobile devices receiving e-mail spam

[D4C5CE]

This is the very reason, as outlined e.g. by Commissioner Liikanen on November 12, 2001,

"The sender cannot know whether a message will be received on a mobile or fixed terminal because of the convergence.
That is a technological fact.
Banning unsolicited commercial SMS messages while allowing unsolicited electronic messages based on other technologies is therefore not a workable solution."

which led to the widely-acclaimed decision to outlaw unsolicited communications in all kinds of electronic media in the "model anti-spam law" now in force throughout Europe as Article 13 of Directive 2002/58/EC.

California is ahead

[phorm]

Seems that California tends to lead the way for many controversial tech/legal issues, for better or worse. It's nice to see that this round is a definitive win for the good guys. Hope they make the same decision up here in BC. I haven't gotten cellspam yet, but I'm expecting it to start soon. At 10c/message, they would be a lot worse than just spam email.

Maybe CA wouldn't have this problem...

[Guppy06]

... if they just passed some decent privacy legislation. Whoops!

Does it matter if anyone actually gets much spam?!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Doesn't seem like it's a huge problem at this point..."

Neither were Usenet and e-mail spam in 1994, before Canter&Siegel and "Spamford" Wallace started "doing business online".

Where there are no marginal costs that stop the senders, nothing keeps the number of advertisements from skyrocketing, and the recipients inevitably drown in a deluge of spam.

From the Japan Internet Report No. 64 Spring 2002:

"One colleague of mine was being woken up repeatedly during the night by the increasing number of unsolicited messages. After resorting to turning off his phone at night, he would find 20 or more spam messages on his handset in the morning.

Meanwhile, a test conducted by Net Village and Digital Street using an i-mode phone with an as-issued e-mail address (telephonenumber@docomo.ne.jp) found that the handset received 857 spam messages in August of last year, 2,898 in December last year, 2,945 in January this year, and 2,578 in February of this year.

Like the landline Internet everywhere else, the mobile Internet in Japan is now awash in junk mail. With e-mail transmissions accounting for 80% of Internet-enabled mobile phone activity, and 98% of that activity spam, we can calculate that more than three-quarters of all data-phone activity is basically garbage."

Anyone yearning to be part of this bright advertising future in the recipient role? If you don't, then opt-in laws are the answer...

Void where prohibited.

[Anonymous Coward]

This offer is void for residents of the state(s) of CA...

Is California ban happy?

[SLot]

First cigarettes, now spam.

Sheesh.

I'm awaiting the day when meat is banned in California. At that point, perhaps it's citizens will tire of dining on fruit & veggies, and demand that every restaurant serve big chunks of raw animal.

In a smoking section.

Until that day, I'll avoid California religiously, and continue praying for the day that Los Angeles slides into the deep, making Vegas that much closer to the beach.

Re:Is California ban happy?

[Anonymous Coward]

i cannot begin to describe the utter pain i feel with the newfound knowledge that a smoker religously avoids my state.

Re:Is California ban happy?

[NanoGator]

Too bad the moderator didn't catch that this was a joke, and a funny one at that.

At least you can have the satisfaction of knowing that the moderator's been meta-moderated. :)

What about email forwarding?

[krokodil]

What if I have email->SMS gateway (most cell
phone carriers provide one). Is sending email to this address is governed under this law? What if I have another email address forwarded to this one?

Cell phones suck. Which one do you recommend?

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet the quality of life in California (or anywhere else I've been in the past 3 years) would be greatly improved if they banned cell phones entirely. I know they're extremely convenient-and even more economical than hard lines now, but I still dream of a land where wireless phones don't exist or are confined to non public places. (a.k.a. The 80's)

Maybe if cell phone use is linked to some debilitating condition (other than wreckless stupidity) my dream will become reality.

Yes, I'm getting a cell phone for work/long distance calls. Resistance is futile.

Understanding SMS

[mcdirmid]

I guess there are not alot of SMS (simple messaging system?) users that are posting to this story. Many carriers (like AT&T), do not charge you for incoming text messages. Not only that, but you can commonly send a text message to a phone via an email address, so its not necessarily the case that somebody is charged at all when a message is sent to a cell phone.

I have my email forwarded to my cell phone via SMS, granted it cuts off after the first 150 characters, so I only really know who sent me the message, and its subject, then the first one or two sentences. But its free so I can't complain about it. The alternative is GRPS, which is a bit pricey right now.

I'm sure you could hack procmail to break a message up into multiple text messages 150 characters, then you could read all your email on your phone for free, including SPAM.

Voicestream is doing this

[eap]

Voicestream has recently begun the dubious practice of sending you "one time informational" voice mails. However, the catch is that you must listen to the entire message, otherwise THEY CHARGE YOU FOR THE AIRTIME OF LISTENING TO THEIR SPAM, as I understand it.

I am going to terminate my Voicestream service, and I would urge anyone else not to sign up with them in the first place.

Sorry dude, I'm not going back to land line

[Anonymous Coward]

I need my cell phone. It is my only phone. I ditched my land line when I got my cable modem. It's great not purchasing anything from PacHell.

Last Post!

[alpg]

An idea is an eye given by God for the seeing of God. Some of these eyes
we cannot bear to look out of, we blind them as quickly as possible.
-- Russell Hoban, "Pilgermann"

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