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Microsoft Sues Spammers
mclearn writes "Microsoft has filed seven more lawsuits against spammers, this time targeting those who violate the 'brown-paper wrapper' provision of the CAN-SPAM law, which sets rules for sexually oriented e-mail solicitations.
Apparently these are a small part of over 120 spam-related cases Microsoft is currently litigating. With Microsoft's deep pockets, can they effectively send a resounding message to spammers?"
By getting into the spam business themselves!
Now, hear me out. Microsoft can become the exclusive spammer of Hotmail, and then they can strong arm other ISPs and mail providers into only accepting Microsoft(tm) Spam. Once this is done, they can quickly buy up the other spammers that haven't gone under. Finally, once this is accomplished and they're the only spammer left, they can quietly shut down the operation. Tada, spam is over.
With Microsoft's deep pockets, can they effectively send a resounding message to spammers?
Yeah... Don't spam XXX material... just the regular garbage... Anyone who thinks this is going to make much difference, is either nieve or stupid - possibly both.
Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing an editor and a MTA.
I for one am flabergasted. Amazed.Yet confused... There is no way to describe it. Or am I dreaming? [too much coffee?] Is Microsoft actually trying to HELP the standard Internet user? hmmm... thats a new one for sure!
_
Free 27" Sony WEGA TV
Out of curiosity, why is Microsoft bothering to litigate?
Surely, the amount of money they spend doing this outweighs the "brownie points" they'll be winning.
And, why wouldn't they just focus on writing anti-spam filtering software, and then _sell_ it as a solution to the spam problem? (In that light, shouldn't they be _encouraging_ more spammers so that they can sell more anti-spam software, or perhaps better convince people to switch to an "enhanced" Outlook 200x?)
I have to say despite all the M$ hatred we all feel for their many security flaws and and horrible software for once I think Microsoft may be acting in the best intrests of the community, with basically no direct benefit to them. Even if it doesn't kill spam (which I don't think anything has the possibility of doing) it might shut down a few or few hundred spammers, and that is a start. I have to say for once I have some nice feelings toward the evil monopoly.
Philosophy.
Hey, at least they're using their $$$ for something I agree with for once... then again, you could compare it with a drug dealer giving to charity...
The United States of America (USA) 'runs' on money. Cash. Credit. Status.
Anything can happen when you're rich. You can be president, the head of an national power company, or even the supposed 'good guy' in the fight against Internet freedom from solicitation.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Of course, no matter how much they spend, we'll probably always be seeing viagra spam in our hotmail boxes. Perhaps in addition to this set of lawsuits (which benefit everybody, don't get me wrong), they should throw in a campaign to work on giving the Hotmail spam filters an overhaul. It might help the community a great deal if Microsoft were to push some of their development over to spam filtering, as well as integrating some of the better email authentication systems into Hotmail, Outlook and the like.
Are there any published studies about how much spam could be reduced if Microsoft could place more effective anti-spam features into the OS itself
Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great step forward, but I think (supposing spammers aren't a little more intimidated) that we might see a better reduction in spam if better precautions were to be taken. Sorry if I've missed any big features mixed in with Windows that might help with this, I don't pay much attention to the patching that goes in as far as email is concerned.
Ryan
let's see... Red Sox won World Series as well.
Well, the apocalypse is on it's way... better start repenting and whatnot.
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
"With Microsoft's deep pockets, can they effectively send a resounding message to spammers?"
+ e-card&btnG=Google+Search
With that load of money I'm sure they can buy a nice set of e-postcard(s) to send off =)
e-bitchslap comes to mind =)
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=insulting
...this feels strange...
If you steal this sig, the only people who will profit are professional criminals.
Err sorry ... forgot that they are the Evil Empire!
I recently read that Bill Gates has the most spammed e-mail address in the world. Microsoft is simply following a game-plan to sue all the spammers that aggravate Mr. Gates.
I don't know who to root for! I don't want Microsoft to win money from spammers, but I want to spammers to burn and die (and go broke in the process). Who should I root for? I'm so confused...
Thank God Slashdot is preceding sigs with -- now! I have waited seven long years for this!
As we pass laws in the US against spam, and start enforcing them, all it will ultimately do is drive the spamming operations out of the country. There will always be some small poor nation willing to let these paracites stay as long as they generate some tax revenue and keep a few locals employed. Blocking international email traffic isn't a viable option, so there is little we will be able to do about it.
Given that, I have moral objections to spammers and am pleased each time I hear of one getting what he or she deserves.
do we like Microsoft now?
I have no
In Russian-speaking Koreatown of Japan, Spammers Sue Old People with Talking Robots!
Surely somebody in the 80s must have patented 'an electronic method of distributing junk mail without permission, including false redirection to addresses for the installation of extra product services".
Just... Don't like it!!
Look awayy little boy, look awayyyy!!!
Cheer then look awayyyy!!!
suing whoever the hell worte outlook. oh wait..
But what I wonder, is why isn't Moft going after the spyware and all that put stuff on your machine that, if you remove it, it makes your machine act funky? Isn't that damaging their product, IE?, or sometimes even Windblows itself is messed up.
Spam is a nuisance, but the adware and spyware are, imho, what are the biggest threat to people's computers. Of course, far be it from me to complain, because I make a liiiiittle on the side cleaning up machines over and over and over a freaking gain, but really, I think Moft should go out and start nailing some of these folks hard.
(btw, Moft means Microsoft)
That's my two cents, I expect no one to pay any attention to it, lol.
Karma: Bad is the liberal way of saying this guy won't drink the kool aid here on slash dot. I wear my Karma with pride
I think they aren't quite sure who they're suing, so they make it "John Doe" at such and such address, DBA so and so. Spammers are a slippery lot.
Notice they're only suing pornographers. As if that's the only annoying spam.
I get spammed regularly to sign up for Microsoft's certification classes. I know that because it goes in my 'caughtspam' folder, whereupon I delete it.
sigs, as if you care.
But it will help. All technology, lawsuits, and prosecution helps slow the increase (hopefully to the point of making it negative) of spam. Technology and lawsuits both make spam a less profitable proposition. The less spam that gets through, the less sales you make. The more spammers that get sued and lose their ass, the less likely the average spammer is to come out ahead. The more spammers get locked up, the more scary a proposition it is to new ones.
It's all about making it less attractive. It will always be attractive to some, even if thepbenalty is death by anal probe. However the numbers CAN be reduced by things like this.
Up till receantly, all it took to be a spammer was a total lack of ethics. There was basically no risk. You wouldn't get sued, and there was no law against it. Combine that with the returns, you had a lot of people lining up.
Well now there IS a risk. You can get your sued to the point of losing everything, and locked up in jail for a good long time. Also the returns will continue to get worse as more and more gets blocked.
We can never expcet to get rid of spam completely, but with effort we can curtail it. It's not like drugs where people demand it, actively seek it out, and will pay massive amount of money for it. Most people, even those that buy from it, don't want to get it. Thus all you really need to do is make it unattractive to people and most of it will die off.
Finally, M$ has finally sued the right person...they did something right..... wow, slap me please for saying that.
"RIAA/MPAA is currently litigating. With RIAA/MPAA's deep pockets, can they effectively send a resounding message to pirates?"
For all the Microsoft naysayers out there, could we pause one little moment here? Before we trash everything Microsoft does as being downright evil with secret motives, it might be nice to consider that perhaps Microsoft IS doing something decent. After all, Bill Gates is undeniably a good guy when it comes to charity (I hope most people would be without that kind of money, but he does do a LOT of stuff with it). And he has been known to do a good amount of anti-spam work with Congress. Could it be possible that their 120 suits against spammers are actually at least slightly altruistic in purpose?
I'm not saying not to hold a little suspicion - they are Microsoft, but then again, don't discount them just because they are Microsoft. Instead of trying to make better anti-spam software (which they are also doing), they are throwing a lot of money at the root of the cause, both in Congressional lobbying and these suits. Doesn't seem too bad to me.
Aaron
Actually, if you RTFA, they're suing more than just "pornographers"... Aaron
Notice they're only suing pornographers. As if that's the only annoying spam.
Well, it is the most annoying spam. Especially if you have little kids you would like to get email addresses for.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bible thumping anti-porn type of person, but some of the spam stuff is just vile (and some is illegal), and it is pushed to you instead of requested.
Finkployd
I might actually get laid soon, then?
Well, do you want the short answer or the long answer.
No.
I guess that was both.
See? See everybody suing spammers, and now laws that make spamming criminal, or even jailing spammers???
I call this abberition of FREE SPEECH. I dont care if it IS commercial speech or individula speech, or "sole properitorship speech" or.....
This is SPEECH, and in the US, it should be FREE (with exceptions of calls to direct physical harm, or false and intentional cries for help).
Cursed be to the people who support Microsoft and/or are against spammers. They're only actively using their free speech right.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"But it will help. All technology, lawsuits, and prosecution helps slow the increase (hopefully to the point of making it negative) of [Pirating]. Technology and lawsuits both make [Pirating] a less [Enjoyable] proposition. The less [Pirated Content] that gets through, the [More] sales you make. The more [Pirates] that get sued and lose their ass, the less likely the average [Pirate] is to come out ahead. The more [Pirates] get locked up, the more scary a proposition it is to new ones.
It's all about making it less attractive. It will always be attractive to some, even if thepbenalty is death by anal probe. However the numbers CAN be reduced by things like this.
Up till receantly, all it took to be a [Pirate] was a total lack of ethics. There was basically no risk. You wouldn't get sued, and there was no law against it. Combine that with the returns, you had a lot of people lining up.
Well now there IS a risk. You can get your sued to the point of losing everything, and locked up in jail for a good long time. Also the returns will continue to get worse as more and more gets blocked.
We can never expcet to get rid of [Pirating] completely, but with effort we can curtail it. It's not like drugs where people demand it, actively seek it out, and will pay massive amount of money for it. Most people, even those that buy from it, don't want to get it. Thus all you really need to do is make it unattractive to people and most of it will die off."
I couldn't agree more.
MSN is selling spamming services. That includes bandwidth, IP useage, and addresses. If you look at can spam, it was crafted to allow this crap. It was crafted for MS, AOL, and Yahoo.
basically no direct benefit to them
Are you kidding? I'm sure there is a huge benefit to them in the cost of running Hotmail. Hotmail accounts would be send millions of spam a day.
Waking Up - There must be a better way to start the day.
Are there damages? Can suing spammers actually be a revenue stream for MS?
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
DDoS them, sue them, whatever it takes I guess. Maybe we can't stop them from changing ISP's and moving servers around to avoid attacks, but maybe M$ can eventually bankrupt them. Use evil to fight evil?
We need 10cc of GNU/Linux STAT!
If they want to cut junk mail, why did they increase the storage space?
It might even work as well as the lawsuits against filesharers.
In all seriousness, if the passage of the law changed nothing, likely the lawsuits will only stop those targeted, and ten will spring up to replace the one that got nailed. They also can do next to nothing about spammers outside the US. So, while I have to give a (rare) salute to Microsoft on this one, I don't think it'll do much to stem the flood.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
This is akin to Macdonalds suing a dodgy fast food corner store... It's not going to make a difference, but it will get their name in the paper.
Hahaha, Microsoft is supposed to be an evil corporation! LOL, now everybody's going to act confused! See, because they usually bash Microsoft, they'll make dumb posts that supposedly point out the irony to get them funny points! OMFGROFL it's so FUNNY!
I hate M$... but do I hate spam more?
it's the the elections; which peice of scum do you vote for? (I'm candian btw; so I'm talking canadian politics here)
I guess we all loose whoever wins.
K Man
...by pointing their DNS records to microsoft.com and waiting for Lycos to strike.
Go Microsoft?
Microsoft is the good guy?
Hummmm must be a full moon...
Spyware and malware is partly their fault. If they really want to clean up their own image, apologize and take on the jerks who cause so much frustration. This stuff is killing productivity, costs millions, and drives people crazy.
Spam's got nothing on spyware.
I don't think the government should make laws regarding the sexual orientation of emails. What they do in the privacy of their own homes is their business.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
KKK rallies are allowed to romp through cities
But they're not allowed to come into people's houses and harrass them. Not if they don't want to be charged with trespassing and breaking & entering--and that's assuming the house owner's shotgun doesn't do them in first (assuming the state has sane home defence laws). That's the difference.
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
Have you ever watched a football game, where you hated both teams so much you wanted them both to lose?
oh wait. forgot this was slashdot....
have you ever watched a football game?
Obama is a twitter sock puppet
I'm sure it will put a damper on things. When AOL, Earthlink and MS sue spammers, it must have an effect, but spam will only stop once Cisco sells spam filtering routers that will drop all spam packets on the floor.
Oh well, what the hell...
With Microsoft's deep pockets, can they effectively send a resounding message to spammers?
Yes. That message is "Don't spam *.microsoft.com with t3h pr0n!" We don't really have anything to do with what you spam others with.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Whoa holy shit I stop hitting refresh for an hour and people are modding posts like "Hooray! Go Microsoft" +5. What did I miss? I'm looking out of my Window(tm) and I don't see any pigs flying.
So if hell froze over does that mean everything I said about "...when hell freezes over" came true? Uh-oh.
Has anyone forgotten the all important drone??
Is microsoft attacking the spammers because the spammers are using their drones?
If in agreement:
Download: http://www.tucows.com/preview/213160.html Sygate Personal Firewall, http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ Adaware free, http://www.mozilla.org/ Mozilla Firefox.
Goto IE
Set a fake proxy server in Tools -> Options -> Connections -> Lan settings
So you never use IE again, even accidentally, or with kids messing around.
Just put in fake as the address and 8080 (or whatever) as the port, simple.
Install Adaware, Run adaware but don't commence searching, kill explorer.exe from the task manager, keep taskmanager open and now commence searching with Adaware.
Goto the Applications tab and click on New Task, enter into the box *Shudder* "explorer.exe".
Install Sygate's free firewall, Sygate Personal Firewall, Most secure there is out there, no bloated crap that Norton pushes.
Install Firefox and Thunderbird.
None of this software asks you for ANYTHING...
Don't forget to eventually BUY a subscription virus tool though.
In the alternative that you're a cheap ass you can use http://www.free-av.com/.
It isn't perfect software but virus protection is a must, no matter what you do or how weak it is.
There, and not one penny spent, nearly complete protection.
The main reason why I'm doing this is because one person whom does this means one thousand less potential spam emails out there..my own little spam attack..
Come on guy's!! Mod me up!
Err, Wash, rinse and repeat =)
Or do they contract with spammers?
Perhaps they run afoul of the brown-paper law
I love SPAM! It really tastes great fried or with fried rice, or boiled with some Ramen noodles. Seriously, give it a try. Now microsoft wants to sue food companies....a$$hats, i swear! pffft!!!!
Most of the spam I received came from Hotmail mail boxes.
Linux at home
Could it be that Microsoft is trying to generate some positive news for itself at a time when even the average Joe and Josephine are pissed because their Microsoft OSes are trashed after being on the net for a few hours? Or is Microsoft doing this Spam battle out of the goodness of their hearts?
Curious, but the invective hurled against Microsoft by average non-geek folks certainly has exploded recently: Seems even grandmas understand Microsoft sold them a pretty bag full of moths, metaphorically speaking.
This could make for an interesting ending of the Microsoft con: The greedy, gluttonous dragon devours its own heart and falls over dead.
Add your own happily-ever-after line here.
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
So if hell froze over does that mean everything I said about "...when hell freezes over" came true? Uh-oh.
Uh-oh??? Are you kidding? There are some girls I need to call right now!
...making them illegal doesn't necessarily mean people will stop doing them.
If you make spam illegal and prosecute the people sending it, you basically force businesses who respect the law out of the market, and what remains are the businesses with no respect for the law: organized criminals
The mob's next frontier is spam, and spam's next frontier is the mob. I don't think this is an improvement.
It will not do anything to stop the spead of spam, and this is why:
These 120 spammers represent a very small section of the entire spammer population, and I doubt that they've got big guys like Ralsky on it. You won't see M$ getting anywhere near the spam gangs, either. In fact, when you think about it, M$ is the reason some spam gangs even exist! Think about all the security holes in XP that allow it to be hijacked and used as a spam relay. Also, think about the "open-relay-by-default" nature of some M$ mailserver products. Maybe these lawsuits are Microsoft's way of saying "Our bad!"
Given the difficulty/cost of tracking down spammers and nailing them, I think it will just turn spamming into a different industry. The (smart) spammers will just go farther underground and become more sophisticated in their ways of avoiding detection/liability. These 120 guys were probably just amateurs that didn't know what they were doing anyway.
starting at 1? Okay I am using fewer junk characters, but I bet it will be 0/
Due to the sheer high number of spammers, it is difficult to reduce spam by suing them. There are thousands of spammers out there and it is not possible for a company of even Microsoft's standing to go after each of them. Suing 120 out of thousands is far from sending aresounding message. The only thing that can restrict spamming is a strict federal law.
All you losers .. WHO CARES ABOUT SPAM?
.. people's civil liberties are going down the tube and the govt. is hunting down people who are just trying to make a living .. freaking DEAL WITH THE GODDAMN INCONVENIENCE.
.. but they want to skin alive anyone who causes them 1 second of delay. And yes an individual email only takes up one second of your time. I understand you get lots of spam from different sources .. but how can you punish someone who's doing what a lot of others are doing .. The punishments that the spammers receive is assymetrical revenge considering that the particular individual actually only cause one or two seconds of inconvenience per victim.
.. everyone wants to get vengeful revenge for every ittle slight .. what happened to the goals of rehabiliation .. or at least proportionate punishment. What's inflicting suffering going to do .. why do people gain satisfaction from it?
Because of you anti spam whacko zealots who dont know how to delete an email message
People dont mind rapists and murderes getting away
People are just screwed up nowadays
It's screwed up.
Soviet sue SPAM and Microsoft..
Ah fuck it. Good job Microsoft.
Happy Holidays slashdotters.
After all, suing spammers is good PR and it is a lot cheaper than rebuilding windows 2K/XP to fix them. They chose to put their money on longhorn. Personnaly, I agree with their strategy, even if I do not believe that longhorn will be functionnal in its first releases.
Or is this right now just limited to Corporations?
...I must have missed how this was different from Fascism
Most of the spam you received claimed to come from Hotmail mail boxes.
Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
When it becomes obvious that your OS is the reason spam is so bad, ...
find a bad guy or two to take the attention off yourself.
That's all. Nothing to see here. Move on.
When Microsoft announces they've actually discovered their attempts to keep on top of the industry and the market are _exactly_ the source of the bugs in their OS,
When they decide 95% of the desktop market was good enough and decide to retire from competing and simply try to make what they've already sold function somewhere close to spec (Can't be done, but they could sure get closer.),
When Bill admits publicly that his vision of technical nirvana doesn't even fit the average geek, much less the average consumer,
Then we can give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt.
Only then.
Until then, them going after the bad guys is just the biggest bad guy trying to shore up his position.
I'm saying this very seriously. They probably run the world's busiest email domain, and get a shitload of spam. If they cooperated with the community, via dcc, or even just by publishing their own blocklist -- other ISPs could start using that list tomorrow to kill pretty much all spam sources.
But Microsoft don't share, I don't buy this bull about how MS is trying to end spam. It would take 2 of their engineers and one week to set up a very effective blocklist just based on the garbage being thrown at hotmail all the time. Then the world would know about virtually all spam sources.
It would be interesting to know how much spam is a direct result of owned windoze boxes versus the amount they will stop with lawyers taking a few spammers to court.
Oh, yea. If they could fix problems with programmers they would not be hiring lawyers.
Naturally. You'd think that a room full of (self-declaring) intelligent geeks would know that spam and illegal file trading are social problems, and have nothing to do with technology.
I personally hope that both problems get worse. Why? Simple really. Sooner or later we all are going to have to let go of our skewed visions of the world, and acknowlege that the problem lies within us. Not technology, or the "enemy". But within each and every one of ourselves, and the choices we have made. Yes virginia, there are consequences, and for bad decisions there are bad consequences. Rationalizing those away is like saying gravity doesn't exist. The only difference between the two is that the consequences of the former aren't always as dramatic, or quick (1).
(1) Karma. Doesn't always hit like you want it to, but sooner or latter it will. How many of you out there are suffering the consequences of something you did in your "didn't know any better" years?
Go Microsoft! Beat the crap out of that .01% of all spammers!
...
Wait!
*realization that this actually helps Microsoft*
Go spammers! Put up a legal defense! Beat the monolithic corporation that's about to kick your collective ass.
*realization that I'm cheering for the spammers*
/Mikael
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
We still hate Microsoft, but we like that they're suing spammers.
If two people you really don't like kill each other, you can still hate them even though they both did you a favor.
paintball
How the FUCK did three comments with "FP?" in their subject line get modded above -1? We must take steps to eradicate such spam from /....
Mods, please mod parent, GP and GGP posts down into oblivion!
The company is diversifying into... penis extensions!
A whole new meaning to "embrace and extend".
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
Aren't all of Microsoft's lawyer's busy fending off other lawsuits? Where are they going to find time to keep the company out of court AND sue spammers?
I have this really funny quote that I like to put here. Unfortunately, there's this really annoying thing called a char
Microsoft provides DNS and mail service hosting to the large scale lottery scam. /dev/null.
Next time you receive one of these ("you have won a big price in the lottery") check the domain name you are supposed to send mail to. Usually some variation on "cashchangeukltd.com".
Do a whois on it. In 99% of cases, it has been registered by Microsoft!
The "technical contact" is an address that only sends an auto-reply tellig you another address (pdbeta@microsoft.com). That one is linked to
When you send a mail to the mentioned cashchange address, it usually returns after a few days with some "mailbox overflow" or "could not contact mailserver" reply *FROM HOTMAIL*.
So, Microsoft are fully in the position to do something with this. Yet, they ignore all abuse mail about this topic.
Microsoft isn't so bad... in my opinion if they help the enforcement is the open-source development of better email protocols. AOL isnt so bad either, they too are changing for the better giving their members virus scan for free... So, maybe we ought to hate them less, and give them a 2nd chance...
Spam is useless information right? We should get Bill to close down the internet! Stupid useless Internet, i wish wish it was edible at least!
---- I dedicate this post to Steveo, Billy and Linny
With Microsoft's deep pockets, can they effectively send a resounding message to spammers?"
I hope so. My penis is now 20 m long, I have about fifty Rolexes and don't get me started about the amount of MS software I have crammed in my closets!
-- Cheers!
There used to be a time where we all actually opened emails from strangers in other countries.
E.g., when I wrote that walkthrough of mine and put my real email address in it (again, spam was not yet a problem), it never occured to me that I'd ever want to discriminate against, say, gamers from Korea if they have questions.
E.g., when I posted on newsgroups, I actually expected that some people would answer privately per email. No point in dragging the whole thread off-topic, after all. Some of them were, yes, in other countries. If I was talking about Linux or about 3D programming in assembly, I wasn't going to reject potentially valuable information from someone just because their email info is from Elbonia.
The fact that nowadays email addresses are some jealously guarded family secret, and that we're gladly blocking whole countries or continents, is the effect of spam that I hate the most. It just shows the extent of the damage these fucks have done to this public resource.
So, well, in fact I actually aggree to your point of view. Let them flee if they want to. Then we can block just the countries which still encourage them, and maybe reclaim our communication resource to the rest of them. Having a usable communication channel even to just half the world, is better than what we have today.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Well, i guess Mr. Gates should open an account in Gmail... any one?
Can't Microsoft revise their EULA to state that their OS cannot be used for spamming? and that the license will be revoked by Microsoft if caught doing so?
Sure, this might move the spammer off Windows when caught, but configuring a Linux type system would be beyonf the capabilities of some spammers.
... whilst they could clearly afford to just hire hitmen and take out the spammers that way it'd be bound to get out and, whilst people here might well applaud, it would be bad for the corporate image.
Your post advocates a
( ) technical (x) legislative ( ) market-based ( ) vigilante
approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which vary from state to state.)
( ) Spammers can easily use it to harvest email addresses
( ) Mailing lists and other legitimate email uses would be affected
(x) No one will be able to find the guy or collect the money
( ) It is defenseless against brute force attacks
( ) It will stop spam for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it
( ) Users of email will not put up with it
( ) Microsoft will not put up with it
( ) The police will not put up with it
(x) Requires too much cooperation from spammers
( ) Requires cooperation from too many of your friends and is counterintuitive
( ) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
( ) Many email users cannot afford to lose business or alienate potential employers
( ) Spammers don't care about invalid addresses in their lists
(x) Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's career or business
(x) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever worked
( ) Other:
Specifically, your plan fails to account for
( ) Laws expressly prohibiting it
(x) Lack of centrally controlling authority for email
(x) Open relays in foreign countries
( ) Ease of searching tiny alphanumeric address space of all email addresses
(x) Asshats
(x) Jurisdictional problems
( ) Unpopularity of weird new taxes
( ) Public reluctance to accept weird new forms of money
( ) Huge existing software investment in SMTP
( ) Susceptibility of protocols other than SMTP to attack
( ) Willingness of users to install OS patches received by email
(x) Armies of worm riddled broadband-connected Windows boxes
( ) Eternal arms race involved in all filtering approaches
(x) Extreme profitability of spam
( ) Joe jobs and/or identity theft
(x) Technically illiterate politicians
(x) Extreme stupidity on the part of people who do business with spammers
(x) Dishonesty on the part of spammers themselves
( ) Bandwidth costs that are unaffected by client filtering
( ) Outlook
( ) Other:
and the following philosophical objections may also apply:
( ) Any scheme based on opt-out is unacceptable
( ) SMTP headers should not be the subject of legislation
( ) Blacklists suck
( ) Whitelists suck
( ) We should be able to talk about Viagra without being censored
( ) Countermeasures cannot involve wire fraud or credit card fraud
( ) Countermeasures cannot involve sabotage of public networks
( ) Sending email should be free
( ) Why should we have to trust you and your servers?
( ) Incompatiblity with open source or open source licenses
(x) Feel-good measures do nothing to solve the problem
( ) Temporary/one-time email addresses are cumbersome
( ) I don't want the government reading my email
(x) Killing them that way is not slow and painful enough
( ) Other:
Furthermore, this is what I think about you:
(x) Nice try, dude, but I don't think it will work.
( ) This is a stupid idea, and you're a stupid person for suggesting it.
( ) Nice try, assh0le! I'm going to find out where you live and burn your house down!
In Redmond only old people sue spammers.
How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
"Most of the spam I received came from Hotmail mail boxes."
Try whois look up; I think you'll find that very little spam actually comes from Hotmail (clue: most headers are forged).
Whatever your opinion of MS (mine's pretty low), they have actually done a reasonable job of cleaning up Hotmail.
Spammers! Spammers! Spammers! Spammers!
"I did this cuz Linux gives me a woody"
...we can convince Mr. Gates that those computer generated 'cease and desist' orders from the RIAA are spam...
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
...that they can even buy the feelings and ideals of anti-MS folks everywhere. They just hadn't figured out how to do it until now.
Not to mention the additional good will among others; in their next anti-trust trial, the argument will be that they have demonstrated their care and concern for the community as a whole...
Let's face it, for the average user spam is little more than annoying. I understand that it causes a significant amount of network traffic, but I've never had to fix a neighbor or family member's computer because of spam. Viruses, trojans, worms, adware and spyware are a different story. I've never seen spam grind a system to a halt.
I don't want Microsoft to win money from spammers, but I want to spammers to burn and die (and go broke in the process).
..and the winner is *drumroll* lawyers!
Oh. Wait. Now we got three evils...
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Microsoft vs. Spammers :)
I would love to see Bill's reaction when he gets one of those.
I think this is just the semifinals of the "IT Industry" Conference of the US Civil Justice Championship. M$ beat the DoJ and Netscape to get here, SCO beat Novell (and had a bye) and is currently matched against IBM. Winner of these two go head-to-head for the championship. Personally I'd like to see SCO vs the spammers for purely satanic reasons.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
Consider the state and federal legistlators standing up to spammers (i.e. grandstanding ineffectively for positive PR). Microsoft is likely doing the same...just they are smart enough to know it is only a stunt. Billy Joe Bob state congressman might think he is doing some good.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Because the spammers probably violate some obscure patent on spamming that microsoft holds.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
Well, ya. It's the same message they have for all of us. "Make a deal with us or face the consequences."
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
Man, I find it really eye opening when multi-billion user license business take on immorality. I figure when people can you a liar, and a thief, and not be wrong; Its time to shut up, and not be noticeable.
Of course there is the soap opera of one horses ass attacking another horses ass, because lets face it, there ARE more horses asses, than horses.
No, no, no... You got it all wrong. What MS is trying to do is LICENSE this to spam companies. Most spam is targeted at Windoze computers isn't it? Therefore, MS will want to ensure they can collect their share of the $$. Otherwise, MS can just sue them for non-licensed Windoze compatable software!
Homer no function beer well without.
That's probably why I haven't gotten my payment yet for testing his new email system. I'm sure it will come to me as soon as he reads through all that junk.
Qxe4
Let's assume you're correct in saying it only takes 2 seconds per message, although I think it takes a bit more.
Although that might be accurate for your average blue color worker, in the tech field your estimate fails to consider the time lost reading spam stories on slashdot. I spend far more time reading about spam problems than dealing with the problem.
Qxe4