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Spam Meeting Wrap-up
wendigo2002 writes "Get used to that daily flood of e-mail come-ons, Viagra offers and lucrative enticements to invest in Nigerian pyramid schemes. Internet gurus, software designers and lawyers today ended a three-day Federal Trade Commission discussion on combating spam by concluding neither technology nor laws are yet capable of completely dealing with the plague."
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I wish all those who convene to discuss law-enforcement and/or regulatory initiatives were so honest about their future prospects for success. Can you imagine what the DEA would be like if someone back in the 50s or 60s had actually gotten together and said "you know, guys, we'll never stop the flow of drugs into the country, and it's only going to get worse". On the other hand, that might have made the problem worse.
I still couldn't fault them for being honest, though.
The summary said "neither technology nor laws are yet capable of completely dealing with the plague".
The fact they discussed it means they recognise a problem. Technology or laws not yet capable of meeting it mean they now recognise a deficiency -- a deficiency needs a solution.
I hope they can divert resources to creating this solution. They need to throw rosources, legal and technological, and *WE* need to keep them aware (or indeed, make them more aware), so it doesn't slip down the government's priority list.
As for your hotmail address, I suggest you ditch hotmail. I did five years ago, and that was not soon enough.
Motohiro Tsuchiya, a communications professor with the International University of Japan, said Friday that about 80 percent of spam in Japan comes from outside the country and most of it is in English.
``We are now importing more spam from the United States,'' he joked.
Yeah! Finally Japanese importation of at least one U.S. product exceeds their exportation!
Nothing will be done until someone answers the question that lawmakers always ask:
..." All the politician hears is "There's these people who make money" and wonders "How can I get some of it?"
What's in it for me?
No matter what you present to a politician, no matter how good the cause or important the problem, laws get introduced and passed for only one reason, and that reason is that someone was able to answer that question.
Sure, it's possible that the answer was "you'll advance your career if you save mankind with this bill", but that almost never happens. There's always a payoff somewhere, and what I can't figure out is a way to tell a Congressman what's the benefit to him for putting in the effort to fix the spam problem. And getting a bill passed is a hell of a lot of work.
I say: "There's these people who make money by sending a deluge of annoying fradulent emails
that
If every spam victim donated a dollar to support congressmen (IE, campaign funding) to do something about spam, then it'll get done. I for one am ready to help.
Just put your name at the bottom of the list, and send $5 to the person at the top of the list. Now send the list to five of your friends and soon, real soon, we'll have enough money to buy a whole session of Congress. This is completely legitimate, a lawyer looked it over, but you mustn't break the chain.