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Will Bounties Cure The Spam Problem?

Posted by timothy on from the hang-'em-high dept.

An anonymous reader writes with a pointer to a piece in today's Mercury News about Lawrence Lessig's proposed spam-bounty legislation, excerpting: "If the law passes, citizens could be eligible for rewards of thousands of dollars or more if they're the first to provide the government with proof and the identity of offending spammers."

6 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. I'm skeptical.... by mark-t · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The same plan could be used to find people who illegally copy music or who pirate software, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon, is it?

    Nope... this is a waste of time for them to even be talking about.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  2. An unspoofable "From:" field would be a start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Average Joe is just starting to realize that the "From:" field on e-mails is like the return address on an envelope, you could write whatever you want.

    But there's no reason why electronic mail cannot be better than snail mail in that respect. Make the "From:" field unspoofable!

  3. $100 bounty offer by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I repeat my bounty offer:

    I will pay $100 to the first person to provide me with the identity of the actual person or persons operating the following spamvertised sites:

    • contipay.com
    • profitabill.com
    • alphabill.com
    • quantumbill.com
    • girlswhocry.com
    • girlswhocry.net
    • girlraped.com
    • incestuals.com
    • hardgiants.info
    • spywiper.com
    • internetsweeper.net

    The name and address obtained must be within the United States and must be usable for service of process.

    "whois" addresses have been checked and are not useful.

    These sites move from ISP to ISP frequently. Many no longer work, but others in the same family appear.

    We've received over 16,000 spam bounces because of this spammer.

  4. Re:Proof? by abhisarda · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ok..if this becomes a law, then the law enforcement agencies will be compelled to help track the spammer. The person who receives the spam will contact the police, who in turn will ask the ISP(of the spammer) for details.

    Now that this law is proposing thousands of dollars in bounties. It is not difficult to envisage spam bounty help centres opening up(true american entrepreneurship ;)) who will help track down the identities of the spammers for a cut from the bounty-say 30 %.
    People would be more than willing to agree to that if they they are assured of results.

    Now assuming this will be successful, spammers would have to move their bases offshore. How will we deal with that? I don't know.

  5. Re:Well... by firewood · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I don't really believe that would be as big an issue as you imply. Spammers' Achilllies Heel is that they (or those who use them) *must* provide some tracable contact information in order to get your money.

    But they don't always have to ask for the money to be sent to them. If they mix random victims addresses in with their own send-me-money addresses, they'll get lots of citizens screaming to vote down this law as harrassment.

  6. Re:all i can say is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    hmmmm.

    this could be a bad model.

    what if the RIAA uses it on file traders.

    you'll have some kids turning in others.

    mp3 bounty hunters....great.

    then the pissed off kid kills the bounty hunter.