Slashdot Mirror
Is the CAN-SPAM Act Working?
DynaSoar writes "Lance Ulanoff of PCMag.com offer his opinion on the success, or lack thereof, of the CAN-SPAM Act. It doesn't appear to be working, though spammers have noticed, in that they try to make their spam look "legit". What might make a real difference, according to US Senator Conrad Burns, co-author of the bill, is international standards and enforcement."
am getting more spam than ever before. Since the spammers are operating out of foreign bases, I fail to see how the Act will do anything.
It is hard to shut down a worldwide, decenteralized group of people in a single country! It is a good thought, but it is not practical.
Eventually people will start using an alternative that is a little more spam-resistant.
There is law, and then there is enforcement. I'm sure there is still a no-jaywalking law in New York City. Does anyone care? No, because there is no penalty. When some spammer does Kevin Mitnick-style time for his crime, the law will mean something.
Why would I buy Viagra from someone who can't spell it?
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
Yahoo has been doing a fantastic job of filtering spam. Of the hundreds (a thousand?) spam messages I get each week, only a handful make it to my inbox. The rest get put in the bulk mail folder. However, without their excellent filtering, email would be unusable.
exposing spammers' real-life addresses on slashdot has worked wonders in the past against some notorious spamkings...
i think we should double our efforts.
Until the spammers money flow is cut off no amount of laws making it illegal will have any effect. What should be happening and I find this RARELY addressed is holding the businesses that spam links to responsible.
Passing laws like that is nothing but a show folks. Put on by our inept governmental leaders (that's a stretch of terms) to say they are working on the issue. Until those businesses that use spam to sell their products are held accountable my tax dollars (once again) are being pissed down the toilet.
My karma is not a Chameleon.
- Friends or family members forwarding articles to me via the "email this story" link instead of just sending me the URL.
- Same as #1 except with online card sites or some other stupid dot com site that wants your email address.
- Posting to newsgroups before spam existed
- Posting to forums that don't mask email addresses
- Used to have unobfuscated email address on web site
- Email address sold by / misused by marketing folk
- Email address in domain whois records for over a decade
- Email address harvested from mailing lists I post to
That's just what I can think of off the top of my head.All of that combined with the fact that I've had my email address since before the first Canter & Siegal spam on usenet even happened. After having my email address for over a decade I don't feel like changing it now.
Oh, add lazyness to the list. I could make up a new email address for each company or person I deal with but it's too much work. I'd rather let spamassassin sort it all out. That's what computers are for, AFAIC.
Prevent email address forgery. Publish SPF records for y
In what way is this different than the current situation?
What sort of legislation would increase your ability or right to block or filter?
What "power" are you thinking of? Do you have to be born on Krypton to get it?
Do you suggest legislating the structure of the internet? How would you go about doing that and enforcing it? If it can be done by altering the structure of the internet what is the need of legislation?
Yes, I too am sick of paying for it, seeing it, filtering it, having it clog up the whole bloody net, etc.
The spammer's "power" is no different than my own though. The power to use email. The primary difference is that I'm not an asshole.
If one could legislate away assholes, hey, I'd be the first to endorse it. The instant the bill passed there would be a loud sort of "Whoooooph!" inside the Capitol Building, followed closely by the implosion of the dome as a result of the sudden low pressure inside.
Suppose you were an idiot. Suppose you were a member of Congress? But I repeat myself. --Mark Twain
KFG
KFG
Stop and think a minute, people. Where are our priorities? On the evening news last night, I heard a man convicted of killing a two year old by punching her with his fist (seven times!) sentenced to five years. Five years. The two men who beat my brother in law to death got fifteen years apiece. You can sometimes get a total sentence of seven years (with time off for good behavior) when you roll up and shoot someone you don't know in the head.
Spam is annoying, and undoubtedly a drain on resources, and a problem to be addressed - but I promise you that I would accept a thousand spam emails per day if it would save the life of one little child.
Where are our priorities?
Thinking outside my Head