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Direct Marketers Association Asks To Be Regulated
alanjstr writes "Recognizing that with all the spam out there, the legitimate messages don't get through, the Direct Marketers Association (DMA) has decided that they will no longer oppose federal anti-spam legislation, but that forged headers should be illegal."
Further information from the Star Tribune can be found here...
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Damn the Emperor!
The chances are that it wasn't a spammer doing that, or rather that it wasn't the result of a spammer doing so deliberately. Some of the more recent email viruses have adopted the strategy of forging from headers in their propagation letters. They pick two addresses from the victim's computer, one recipient and one forged sender. The theory seems to be that there's a decent chance that the two are likely enough to know each other that it will increase the chances of the letter being opened, while masking the identity of the infected machine. It seems as though some spammers have become infected, so there are lots of people receiving random messages apparently from people they've never heard of.
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
*Sigh* I feel better now.
;)
Beware! Giving you methods to blow off your righteous steam (such as the "internet chat room") is how the Man keeps you from becoming so angry you revolt against him!
The enemies of Democracy are
On a theoretic level your idea is great. There are however two flaws with your reasoning.
1. Verifying these messages requires processing power. A lot more than plain old mail delivery. Processing power costs money. I doubt any spam-firm would be willing to pay that much.
2. There are lot's of email servers which don't belong to any big ISP. If there was a law to sign messages surely the law would require all servers to support it? That way all the small-timer and enthusiast servers would not fit into the picture.
I love the idea though. If it only were a perfect world...
.: Max Romantschuk
State laws could remain stronger. Federal law would only trump state law if for some reason the state law was more lenient than the federal. The CA medical marijuana case is a prime example of a state attempting to create a law that effectively legalizes activities federal law prohibits. Likewise states often enact laws that are more "severe", for lack of a better word, than their federal counterparts. Again drugs are a good example. Someone accused of, say, cocaine possession or distribution would likely do better in federal court than in many state jurisdictions. See Clinton, Roger, who served less than two years for a crime often netting 20 plus years in the crusader Arkansas state courts of the 1980s.
But I'm not a lawyer so your mileage may vary...
-dameron
Now, I don't agree with either the DMA or NRA, but respect the NRA a lot more because it is made of individual people protecting their individual rights --- even though guns obviously do more damage than junk mail. In fact, as far as Big Evil Trade Associations go, the DMA is fairly harmless (compared to the BSA, RIAA, MPAA, etc.) It mostly represents regular junk mailers that use the postal service, not spammers.
It can "overturn" as many regulations as it wants, and states like Washington can continue to pass tougher anti-spam laws and these state laws will apply.
Example: prohibition revoked, booze becomes legal at the federal level ---> many counties in the south pass laws forbidding alcohol (dry counties). We could very easily have "wet" spam states and "dry" spam states.
Plus I wasn't talking about the article at all, but responding to the previous poster, who I quoted directly.
-dameron
When you are told by your employers to initiate a spam run, you should NEVER accept that assignment. The ethical and moral thing to do is determine just who in the company decided upon the spam run and speak to them regarding spamming and explain why it is a bad thing. If, after you explain the situation to them, they refuse to relent and inist upon going through with it, you should have them killed.
It really is for the best for society.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
mod parent up
Read up on the history of Corporations, and you will find that they are a very perverted form of the original intent. They were supposed to be formed for the common good, disbanded in 20 years. They were given very little of the rights of people (other than to do business as a combined entity for a limited period of time), but they were waived the resposbilities of people in order to attract investors (nobody wants to invest if they could lose more than they put in because of liability). If before the 20 years were up they stopped serving the common good, you could get them disbanded earlier.
At various points corporate law changed, and now they still have an immunity to real resposbility, but all of their previous limitations have been removed. They get all the plusses of being a person without liabilities. They don't have to serve the common good, they can exist for centuries, and they don't have to make amends if the screw up royally, they can just fold up the company and the investors dont lose anything they didn't put in.
11*43+456^2
Yes, but many of them still have a contact person in the US -- there has to be a contact point somewhere for the sleazeball to collect money from the suckers, and sending money to another country complicates matters. An enforced (that's really the catch) law against stealing people's bandwidth would make the contact person liable as an accessory (at least) to the crime.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
When I said DDOS attack, I just meant 10 million people sending back an e-mail... and it's even legal.
Opus: the Swiss army knife of audio codec
Libertopian cretins of the world unite! You have nothing to loose but your obsessive dogma.
Hate to burst your bubble here but the entire global car market has gone the same way as the US market so it is unlikely that US regulations are the issue. Further the US car market consolodated in the 1930s when there were no safety laws.
The cost of capital to develop new engines is immense. SAAB sold out to GM because they simply could not afford to design a new engine.
Even a company like Rolls Royce could not support itself as an independent company.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
Well according to the Renquist court states rights mean that States have the right to opt out of federal regulations whenever they choose but not to impose regulations of their own that are tougher than federal regulations.
The Bush administration are currently challenging the right of California to regulate vehicle emissions despite the fact that the federal act explicitly allows California (but no other state) the right to regulate emissions. This is over California's intention to regulate SUVs as cars rather than light trucks. So a Ford excurion won't be exempt from gas guzzler tax just because it weighs over 6000 lbs.
So yes you might have a point about states rights in theory but in practice judicial perogative would allow the SPAMers to trump state laws if they can persuade the reptiles in Congress to give them a green light.
The nightmare for the DMA here is that if Congress ever does something about SPAM they are quite likely to regulate DMA spam as well, like making do not call lists compulsory.
Targetting SPAM practices like fake headers makes a much more sensible strategy for DMA in this instance than attempting an NRA like 'absolutely no compromise at any cost'. Particularly since their members compete with SPAM.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/