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Australian Spam Bill Not So Good After All?

Posted by timothy on from the hawaiians-get-more-spam-anyhow dept.

crazney writes "Electronic Frontiers Australia has criticized the anti-spam bill proposed by the Australian government. You can read their full analysis here"

7 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. critisize?? by LadyLucky · · Score: 4, Funny


    Crikey, there's a huuuuuge spelling mistake lying in the article text *just above me*. This one's a real beaut, too mate! It would be sick if you just fixed that up there...
    </crocodile-hunter>

    --
    dominionrd.blogspot.com - Restaurants on
  2. Good to see some sense by evil_roy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Recently it has seemed that if anything was said to be anti-spam it was deemed to be good - no further scrutiny was required.

    These laws were a case in point, but any comments here or elsewhere that questioned the new laws were howled down in the shared "spam-is-evil" sentiment. Spam is a pain and is hard to defend - but defeating spam should be a case of the right tool for the job. The right tool is rarely legislation - yet it is the first we seem to reach for.

    I'm glad that there is some well thought out legitimate questioning of these knee-jerk reaction laws.

  3. What by Timesprout · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean training kangaroos to box the crap out of spammers is not a good idea !!!

    Whats that Skippy ? You threw another spammer down the mine shaft. Good roo.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  4. Alcohol, Tobacco, and SPAM? by cliffy2000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Spam laws are kind of like the US gun control laws. They're all fine and dandy, but until the existing laws are enforced, they really mean nothing. And the greater restrictions probably just annoy law-abiding citizens.
    (Now, I'm all in favor of gun control. Just not more legislation until the ATF actually does something.)

  5. Austrailian spam? Naw! by zerocool^ · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Spam sent from austrailia? Never.

    Oh, wait. I just sent some emails to the people who own:
    mail006.syd.optusnet.com.au
    mta05.mail.mel. aone.net.au
    mta04.mail.mel.aone.net.au

    And told them to stop the spamming.
    Return-Path: spachakra@ozemail.com.au
    Received: from mta04.mail.mel.aone.net.au (mta04.mail.au.uu.net
    [203.2.192.84]) by mail.netmar.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id AAA02654
    for <your_mom@netmar.com>; Sun, 5 Oct 2003 00:04:47 -0400 (EDT)
    Received: from fsveeyjv ([63.60.218.131]) by mta04.mail.mel.aone.net.au
    with SMTP
    id <20031005040357.GWUT21664.mta04.mail.mel.aone.net. au@fsveeyjv>;
    Sun, 5 Oct 2003 14:03:57 +1000
    FROM: "Microsoft Customer Support" <njsmmr_lcmmo@technet.com>
    TO: "Customer" <customer-ciltovfs@technet.com>
    SUBJECT: New Net Update
    Mime-Version: 1.0
    Message-Id: <20031005040357.GWUT21664.mta04.mail.mel.aone.net. au@fsveeyjv>
    Date: Sun, 5 Oct 2003 14:04:37 +1000
    Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="ucvnkfiuyukzljwof"
    Content-Length: 157002
    Yeah, I'm getting these "Microsoft Net Update" mail messages at a rate of about 6 an hour. "Please install this latest update, rejwk.bat". Please wash my balls.

    I'm so freaking frustrated, though. I don't know how to filter them, cause they're comming from lots of different (some non-open relay) mail servers, and the messages are innocent enough as to not be words I'd want to filter out of my incomming mail. Plus, all the file attachments and email addresses and attachments are all randomly generated characters.

    FUCKING SPAM make the internet unusable! GOD DAMNIT. They took something that was beautiful in it's simplicity, and FUCKING RUINED IT.

    GOD, I must be tired to rant, but it pisses me off. Viruses! Spam! Worms! Denial of service! Get sued by the FBI, CIA, RIAA, SCO, FreeMasons! Fuck, it's a wonder anyone's still online.

    ~Will
    --
    sig?
  6. All over again by Omega037 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is another one of those laws that may have been made with good intentions in mind, but will either not work or actually unintentionally harm those who aren't the real culprits. The problem with this law, much like the DMCA, is that the computer world is changing rapidly, and it is often hard to draw lines as to what is or isn't spamming. Instead you end up with huge loopholes for the real spammers and lots of red tape and problems for those who aren't. Laws regarding online crime or problems need to be updated at least a few times a year, if not monthly. However, the speed at which governments are willing to change laws is far too slow to do this.

  7. Re:Austrailian spam? Naw! by Albanach · · Score: 5, Informative
    Use spamassassin. You can either catch them with some bayes training, or even easier, set:

    score MICROSOFT_EXECUTABLE 5

    in /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf

    That way everything with an executable will be set as spam. You can then use sieve or other mail scripting language to filter / discard the messages as apropriate.