Slashdot Mirror
Yet Another Anti-Spam Bill In U.S. Senate
ackthpt writes "Another bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate, according to CNN/Technology, by Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Montana) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) Yahoo supports it, but DMA and AOL want to polish it a bit more. Version 0.9 beta would require States Attorney Generals to sue spammers on consumers behalf. (So long as I get some moola from these jerks, I'd be happy with that) My wishes are: craft a strong enough bill to stand 1st Amendment challenges and punish violators in the pocketbook enough and a few prosecutions will bring most of the domestic junk to a screeching halt. I tend to daydream about winning the lottery, too. Contact your Senators and Representative with your wishes, maybe this time something will get a move on."
Sure I am tired of my spam but its not really an inconvenience, a couple clicks and it is gone. Isn't all this legislation going to start infringing on rights in the future if not now?
Checking out my form of escapism.
Well two words, Regime Change. Countries who posess weapons of mass annoyance will be DDOS'd off the political map.
Happy Noodle Boy says "F###ing doughnut! Mock me? You fried cyclops!!"
An anti-spam bill would not necessarially infringe on first amendment rights, provided the government could show enough of a substantial interest in regulating the speech. That I don't think will be much of a problem. Tailoring it sufficiently so as to only encompass spam.. thats another matter. There the goverment might just well run into an overbreadth problem, but if they can show that their way is the only way to accomplish their goal, then it will be upheld. Commercial speech is protected under the First Amendment just like personal speech is, except to a lesser degree.
The RIAA action, at least to me, doesn't implicate first amendment protection in the slightest. The constitution only applies to state actors, and the RIAA isn't one of them. The RIAA is attempting to enforce their rights through the copyright clause, to which the first amendment really isn't going to provide a defense to piracy. Fair use yes, First Amendment No. Trust me, I hate the RIAA just like the rest of us, and I don't think that downloading mp3's is that big a loss to them, but it is violating the law, and is punishable.
danoatvulaw
Villanova Law School class of 04.
Spammers annoy us, so we want them restricted.
We want free music, so we're against restrictive controls on digital media.
We're just like any other special interest group, there doesn't need to be any internal consistency in our stands on various issues.
NO CARRIER
We need Operation Emailer Freedom wherein we shoot tomahawk cruise missiles at spammers, have Delta Force sneak in spammers' houses and 'neutralize' them, and issue sanctions on rogue ISPs which provide safe haven for spammers.
Spam is theft of services; every Internet user subsidizes spammers. We pay for our bandwidth, connectivity, storage, and processing power. Spammers pay minimal fees for sending their crap to millions of unwilling recipients. They do not pay the true cost of distributing their crap, as do senders of paper junk mail.
Spammers do not pay for the millions of dollars spent by ISPs and network admins who have to deal with the floods of spew.
Spam is a denial of service attack; anyone who runs their own mail servers sees relentless probes and re-sends. It's also DOS when you have to wait for a bunch of shit to download before you can get to your legitimate mail.
Spammers are vandals; they ruin every goddam thing they touch.
There are no Constitutional issues here; none of us are required to listen to anyone's speech, none of us are required to fund the distribution of their speech.
This Senate bill is crap, it's no good, it merely serves to legitimize spam. It's not good enough to be able to filter it more easily, it must be stopped at the source. Bigger and better spam filters is like bigger and better water filters; wouldn't it be better to get clean water from the source?
Please read this excellent essay, "Thank The Spammers" http://www.spamreaper.com/thankspammers.html
---
SCO is weenies
Gator is Spyware
Microsoft is thugs