Posted by
CmdrTaco
on from the i've-seen-this-before dept.
Zendar writes "idg has an article about how students at the 151-year-old Tufts University were paid as little as $20/month to relay spam from computers in their dorms. Interestingly enough, the students approached the spammers about this scheme and not vice-versa."
Bullshit, get a life
by
jilles
·
· Score: -1, Flamebait
Freedom of speech is not theft. Besides you don't have to listen. And the amount of resources you lose over spam is negligable. Try calculating the associated cost in terms of KB/month for the spam you receive and compare that to your ISP bill and the amount of bandwidth you use anyway. I strongly suspect that one of these numbers is absolutely dwarfed by the other. Any ISP claiming that spam is taking 50% of their bandwidth should get a clue and install the appropriate software to address the problem. Probably they can save even more by hiring more competent staff.
Your time is precious too, I know. There are plenty of client and serverside solutions that eliminate virtually all spam on your PC. I just installed a spam assassin pop3 proxy on one of my windows machines. Together with the spamnet plugin I already use in Outlook, that eliminates something like 98% of the spam.
Somehow, the people complaining the most about spam are either busy and ignorant business people or unix sysadmins who should know how to fix the problem at the root. I spent way more time reading about spam and its alleged severely negative consequences for world peace and economy on slashdot than I have actually spent time separating spam from real mail during the ten or so years I have used email (and I receive lots of both spam and mail). Until half a year ago I didn't use any automated spam removal which implied that I had to use the delete key up to ten times a day while I was processing email anyway. If spam bothers you, you may need to consider that that may be a symptom of a bigger problem you have. Probably there's a lot of other stuff that bothers you, maybe your social life sucks too. Who knows? Deal with these problems and you'll be a happier person.
If some kids can earn a few dollars because some nut is willing to pay them for the privilege of using their bandwidth I have no problems with that.
" It sure doesn't take much to compromise a person's self-respect or integrity.... They sold out cheap."
Let me guess, you were the arsehole who had the porche parked in the school lot. Did you see the old beat up Ford Escort with a different color fender, no muffler, and a broken windshield? The guy that owned the Escort (and I know him well) would have sold his self-respect for a tuna-freakin-fish sandwich. That guy had LESS than $20/mo for food, toiletries, and beer. You wouldn't survive a week in that guys shoes. $20/mo means another case of mac-n-cheese.
-- Holy s-, it's Jesus!
NO! Tar and feather them now, before it's too late
by
frost22
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
Apparently the University in question plans to give the students a slap on the wrist and not persue the matter further. But this is unacceptable - under no circiumstance can these people allowed to proceed in their chosen path.
I've got a few alternative suggestions. Let's start with the more reasonable, modest ones:
Get Law enforcement involved. Get the FBI. This is 1. a conspiracy, 2. intention to commit wire fraud 3. most likely committed across state borders. So they should offer the students leniency for full cooperation, and then haul the real spammer's ass to court and get him into the slammer for years ! Make it RICO, make it organized crime! Consider the renaming of the mail relay software encryption, and use that as aggravating circumstance. Throw the whole book at him, and then do it again! Use whatever you can get, to put this miserable worthless piece of human DNA garbage into a hole and throw the key away.
you also might want to punish the student offenders slightly more severe. Expulsion from the university comes to mind. And make them compensate the University's expenses to the last dime. Including admin time spent to handle complaints, track them down, etc.
you could increase that by banning them from any university in this state, or from higher education in the US in general.
lets get more serious now. The above mentioned conspiration thing might applied to the students as well. Put them to jail for a few year, and then ban them from using the Internet for another 5 or 10 years. If you can do that to some harmless trespasser like Kevin Mitnick, you certainly can do it to criminal scum like these!
Now let's explore more universally just and moral options. One of these would of course be execute the students on the spot. Grant them their right to a speedy trial (of, say, one day or so), foreclose any appeals and then bring them to a fast and merciful death. Execute them publicly (say, on a market place) so their sorry fate can at least serve the moral enlightenment of others. Of course, for universal justice, you would have to administer a more severe punishment to the master spammer. There are a number of time proven methods, but if you're out of ideas, ask Mr. Ascroft - he's got some people on a cuban base, that know numerous ways to put a man into a state where he practically begs for a fast death.
Now we leave the enlightened 19th century and draw from resources originating in more medieval times. Back then, prison sentences didn't play a role. Anything that couldn't be handled by monetary compensation (or bribery) would be handled by corporal punishment. But, underlying philosophy was that the punishment hat to fit the crime - even if only in a symbolic way. The real challenge for the medieval judical systems, of course, was to invent fitting punishments. Most of those invloved rose to the challenge. And most punishments shomehow involved the death of the perpetrator, thereby reducing the chance for repeat offense to zero. Unfortunately, none of them knew spammers, so we have to come up with fitting punishments ourselves. For a first time offender, who didn't relay more than, say, 100 messages, we might suggest something lenient, like cuting off their two typing fingers, or removing their tongues (highly symbolic - those who poison the well of communication shall be prevented from using it). For a more serious offender, a number of punishments come to mind, all alluring to some of the distasteful missives they sent out. Ideas involve death by overdoses of Viagra, deathly penile enlargement by help of fluid (molten) metal, getting beaten to death with a roulette kettle (from an internet gambling operation) or beeing suffocated-by/squeezed-under/force-fed-with a truckload of worthless spam-hyped pennystocks. And, of course, all kinds of deaths involving long, sharp wooden poles (in highly symbolic reference to the "teenage girls getting it up the ass" type of spam). Once you are in the right mood, you'll probably come with a few more poetic ideas of your own. Just read your daily dose of spam
Of course, there are few minor legal obstacles to solve for one or two of these points, but, after all, now that the US has officially reintroduced torture and abolished habeas corpus, those can be considered minor problems, which can be solved with minimal legislative effort.
Did I mention I hate spammers ?
-- ...and here I stand, with all my lore, poor fool, no wiser than before.
Slashdot Mirror
Freedom of speech is not theft. Besides you don't have to listen. And the amount of resources you lose over spam is negligable. Try calculating the associated cost in terms of KB/month for the spam you receive and compare that to your ISP bill and the amount of bandwidth you use anyway. I strongly suspect that one of these numbers is absolutely dwarfed by the other. Any ISP claiming that spam is taking 50% of their bandwidth should get a clue and install the appropriate software to address the problem. Probably they can save even more by hiring more competent staff.
Your time is precious too, I know. There are plenty of client and serverside solutions that eliminate virtually all spam on your PC. I just installed a spam assassin pop3 proxy on one of my windows machines. Together with the spamnet plugin I already use in Outlook, that eliminates something like 98% of the spam.
Somehow, the people complaining the most about spam are either busy and ignorant business people or unix sysadmins who should know how to fix the problem at the root. I spent way more time reading about spam and its alleged severely negative consequences for world peace and economy on slashdot than I have actually spent time separating spam from real mail during the ten or so years I have used email (and I receive lots of both spam and mail). Until half a year ago I didn't use any automated spam removal which implied that I had to use the delete key up to ten times a day while I was processing email anyway. If spam bothers you, you may need to consider that that may be a symptom of a bigger problem you have. Probably there's a lot of other stuff that bothers you, maybe your social life sucks too. Who knows? Deal with these problems and you'll be a happier person.
If some kids can earn a few dollars because some nut is willing to pay them for the privilege of using their bandwidth I have no problems with that.
Jilles
" It sure doesn't take much to compromise a person's self-respect or integrity. ... They sold out cheap."
Let me guess, you were the arsehole who had the porche parked in the school lot. Did you see the old beat up Ford Escort with a different color fender, no muffler, and a broken windshield? The guy that owned the Escort (and I know him well) would have sold his self-respect for a tuna-freakin-fish sandwich. That guy had LESS than $20/mo for food, toiletries, and beer. You wouldn't survive a week in that guys shoes. $20/mo means another case of mac-n-cheese.
Holy s-, it's Jesus!
I've got a few alternative suggestions. Let's start with the more reasonable, modest ones:
- Get Law enforcement involved. Get the FBI. This is 1. a conspiracy, 2. intention to commit wire fraud 3. most likely committed across state borders. So they should offer the students leniency for full cooperation, and then haul the real spammer's ass to court and get him into the slammer for years ! Make it RICO, make it organized crime! Consider the renaming of the mail relay software encryption, and use that as aggravating circumstance. Throw the whole book at him, and then do it again! Use whatever you can get, to put this miserable worthless piece of human DNA garbage into a hole and throw the key away.
- you also might want to punish the student offenders slightly more severe. Expulsion from the university comes to mind. And make them compensate the University's expenses to the last dime. Including admin time spent to handle complaints, track them down, etc.
- you could increase that by banning them from any university in this state, or from higher education in the US in general.
- lets get more serious now. The above mentioned conspiration thing might applied to the students as well. Put them to jail for a few year, and then ban them from using the Internet for another 5 or 10 years. If you can do that to some harmless trespasser like Kevin Mitnick, you certainly can do it to criminal scum like these!
- Now let's explore more universally just and moral options. One of these would of course be execute the students on the spot. Grant them their right to a speedy trial (of, say, one day or so), foreclose any appeals and then bring them to a fast and merciful death. Execute them publicly (say, on a market place) so their sorry fate can at least serve the moral enlightenment of others. Of course, for universal justice, you would have to administer a more severe punishment to the master spammer. There are a number of time proven methods, but if you're out of ideas, ask Mr. Ascroft - he's got some people on a cuban base, that know numerous ways to put a man into a state where he practically begs for a fast death.
- Now we leave the enlightened 19th century and draw from resources originating in more medieval times. Back then, prison sentences didn't play a role. Anything that couldn't be handled by monetary compensation (or bribery) would be handled by corporal punishment. But, underlying philosophy was that the punishment hat to fit the crime - even if only in a symbolic way. The real challenge for the medieval judical systems, of course, was to invent fitting punishments. Most of those invloved rose to the challenge. And most punishments shomehow involved the death of the perpetrator, thereby reducing the chance for repeat offense to zero. Unfortunately, none of them knew spammers, so we have to come up with fitting punishments ourselves. For a first time offender, who didn't relay more than, say, 100 messages, we might suggest something lenient, like cuting off their two typing fingers, or removing their tongues (highly symbolic - those who poison the well of communication shall be prevented from using it). For a more serious offender, a number of punishments come to mind, all alluring to some of the distasteful missives they sent out. Ideas involve death by overdoses of Viagra, deathly penile enlargement by help of fluid (molten) metal, getting beaten to death with a roulette kettle (from an internet gambling operation) or beeing suffocated-by/squeezed-under/force-fed-with a truckload of worthless spam-hyped pennystocks. And, of course, all kinds of deaths involving long, sharp wooden poles (in highly symbolic reference to the "teenage girls getting it up the ass" type of spam). Once you are in the right mood, you'll probably come with a few more poetic ideas of your own. Just read your daily dose of spam
Of course, there are few minor legal obstacles to solve for one or two of these points, but, after all, now that the US has officially reintroduced torture and abolished habeas corpus, those can be considered minor problems, which can be solved with minimal legislative effort.Did I mention I hate spammers ?