Slashdot Mirror
Dutch Fine Spammers, AOL Reports Drop in Spam
teun writes "This morning the Dutch Telecom Authority, responsible for enforcing the anti-spam law in
the Netherlands, announced their first two fines for Dutch spammers: 25,000 and 42,500 euros. These fines are based on the anti-spam law that became
effective in May this year. Spamvrij.nl is very pleased with these results." gollum123 writes "According to AOL, its subscribers are getting less spam this year. There has been a reduction in both the number of daily email messages to AOL (from 2.1 to 1.6 billion) and in the number of customer complaints about spam." And finally, Saeed al-Sahaf writes "We hear so much about China being the source of spam. But a new study shows China and South Korea as distant second to the United States as the source of spam. Sophos, a leading anti-virus maker has released some findings, which claim that the good old US accounts for almost 42% of spam mails sent out this year, and they chalk it up to lack of security on most desktop computers."
Less subscribers = less spam! AOL has found a way to reduce it, for sure: reduce the number of customers through overpricing and degradation of services. This results in fewer inboxes: Viola! Less Spam!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Now my AOL email will have only 42,000 spam messages a day, instead of the 162,000.
This is definately good news. Thanks OPTA, finally a useful thing out of you. Now let's hope they get Patrick de Bruin as well.
:)
Internetayatollah's forever
I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
"...and they chalk it up to lack of security on most desktop computers."
So it's Microsoft's fault, right? That's what I'm hearing.
Surely you jest.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
Are spam crimes really being enforced correctly? Some would say no. Shouldn't government be focused on combating spam itself by catching each and every spammer, rather than making an example out of a few? It's the same as the RIAA and music; no one worries about getting caught because the odds are so low.
Until we have a centrally-implemented system that tracks every spammer by IP and reports them to ISPs, we won't be making any real progress.
As long as they can rake in more cash than they pay out, fines are useless.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
LOL LMAO ROTFL.
If it weren't for Spamassassin I'd give up on email.
I bet non-US sources are probably still the biggest source if you count operations that are knowingly in the business of sending spam, and the majority of the US sources are from zombie armies of owned home computers.
"We hear so much about China being the source of spam. But a new study shows China and South Korea as distant second to the United States"
The can spam act has done nothing but help legitimize a previously shady trade. Now that people know the rules, and how to bend them, spammers are popping up all over the states. I suppose what "Can Spam" really meant was to Can it, so it's easier to ship out.
Go ahead and call me unreliable; reliable is just a synonym for predictable.
Your name is apt: I can only assume this is a troll.
Tom Geller
What is the legal definition of spam? I'm getting lots of spam from something called Ads by Goooogle in Web sites that I visit, and I'd like it stopped.
You mean "head-in-the-ass" don't you?
You could assume that, or you could answer the question.
AOL reports a drop in spam because they falsely classify REAL messages as spam! Most network admins I know have had to deal with AOL at one time or another. They are pretty strict for a large ISP: they require valid rDNS records, last I checked, for one, and many times have my parents (stubborn AOL'ers) found legitimate mail in their spam folder).
In my company, one blocked false positive is considered a mortal sin. Report less spam doesn't mean you are great at blocking it, it might mean you're just too damn aggressive at fighting it.
AOL keeps accounts around long after you leave the service, in the hopes you will one day come back and reactivate. I had an email address there I deleted years ago, only to reactivate it and find I had mail waiting (mostly spam!).
Execute? [Y/N] _
"lack of security" : read "dumb"
Have some respect for the 3000 who died on 9/11 before making idiotic and insensitive comments such as that!
degradation of services?
I used AOL back in 2000. They fucked me over, long story, but the point is their browser sucked and their service sucked. I had Opera running on the machine and Erols service at the same time--Erols was super-fast for dialup, and Opera was the shit; AOL browser was fucked up, and the throughput with AOL dialup was about 30% less than Erols AND I would get knocked off the service regularly. Erols only had a service outage ONCE in the year I had them. (And they canceled my service after I moved out of state, as requested, unlike AOLarceny.)
From what I've heard, the new AOL browser is a lot better, the file compression seems like a nice boon for those with newer processors than the old Penty Pro I was using back then, and the customer service is the same (bend over and spread 'em). I've heard less about service disruptions on AOL dialup than I used to--probably due to users switching to broadband (about the same price as AOL or cheaper if you already get cable or overpriced phone service).
I'd really be interested in how AOL is worse than it was in 2000. I don't buy it.
Incidently, the Penty Pro was running an extremely stable build of Win95 SP2 (stable for Win95, that is!) until the HD died. Bought a new used HD on eBay, installed Debian, use it to run OpenOffice (but it's starting to act unstable--probably b/c of excessive use of virtual memory).
Why, because he points out the general Slashdot concensus that copyright violation isn't really a crime (unless it's a GPL violation which of course worse than mass murder), yet spam is treated like the personal demon spawn of Satan? Troll or not, he makes a point.
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
And what're you gonna do when the good old nanny-state hikes the rate up to 70-100%? Revolution? Ooops... throwing rocks at those government tanks is not really working out. Maybe we shouldn't have given up our right to bear arms...
Given that a dike is a kind of wire cutter used by electronics
technicians, that's got to hurt.
Thanks Opta now i can set my spam filter to mark Dutch mail as good and all English mail as spam.
But how do I convince friendly foreigners to send their messages to me in Dutch only?
I don't know about you, but I'm going to blacklist this new country full of lawless spammers and ISP's that don't care...just like I did with China and Mexico!!1
I'd like you to give the Slashdot community rational arguments for why copyright is a good thing. Can't do that? Well, fucking stop posting here.
What's more surpsing is that ISP's have not done more to stop being the source of spam (ala blocking port 25 outbound).
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
You're an idiot.
Copyright infringement shouldn't be a crime in my opinion - the reason I would scream bloody murder when the GPL on some software I've written would be infringed is because if I were to infringe the copyright of the gpl-infringer (typically an unscrupulous corporation), they'd try to sue me into bankruptcy.
I would honestly have no grief with someone who didn't obey the GPL, but could never enforce copyrights (== censoright) on others.
Remember the FSF party line "Without copyright, the GPL would be unenforceable - It would also be unnecessary".
Maybe, smartass, it's because spam STEALS resources (CPU cycles, bandwidth) from others for a profit, whereas non-profit copyright violation (including that once considered "fair use"--thanks, DMCA) only impinges upon imaginary profits which the IP holders may or may not have been able to collect on.
Are the crap load of Cd's and Floppy the AOL has sent out Worldwide not worse then spam you and filter?!?
. htm/
t .htm/
http://www.joke-archives.com/aol/aoldisk.html/
http://homepages.newnet.co.uk/martynarnold/armour
http://homepages.newnet.co.uk/martynarnold/beerma
http://www.aolmemorabilia.com/qlink.html/
Mmmmmm Beer...,
----------
"Clutch my testes, bloody squirrel humpers!!"
-Happy Noodle Boy
The alternet numbers come from thin air. Alternet is a fringe nutjob opinion site, not known for being very factual. You don't rely on political opinion repositories for any facts (except for the "Facts" of whether someone likes something or not).
If AOL is so strict, why can't they check the originating IP of an email before spewing erroneous Bounce messages?
I'd like you to give the Slashdot community rational arguments for why copyright is a good thing. Can't do that? Well, fucking stop posting here.
What the bloody heck are you talking about? I never said it was a good thing. I'm simply pointing out the nonchalant attitude around here regarding things like mp3/movie distribution over p2p (oh come on, lots of you do it). Spam sucks, sure, but there are ways to deal with it that don't require massive government intervention. A better security mentality (particularly among windows users) alone will decrease spam.
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
...that it didn't happen fifty years ago.
Perhaps, but then again I'm not terribly interested in the party line of an organization that does as much as they can to assimilate other people's work under their holy GNU banner (the whole "Oh, you should really call it GNU/Linux" mentality).
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
I find this quote particularly interesting:
"...which claim that the good old US accounts for almost 42% of spam mails sent out this year, and they chalk it up to lack of security on most desktop computers."
So is this saying that there's a larger percentage of users in the USA than elsewhere, thus we are responsible for more unprotected PC's, just based on having more users?
Or is it saying that American users tend to be ignorant on security, and PC-education, as opposed to the rest of the world?
The brainwashed Republicans are the ones who think numbers from the "Limbaugh Letter" are factual. Now, as for those who have a problem with the fictions presented as fact in Alternet? That's probably 95% of everybody. We're all "Brainwashed" and you are the only one who knows the truth. Forgive us, oh, enlightened one!
' precious government is hell-bent on destroying the environment, our civil liberties and our freedoms '
Shhh. don't tell anyone. John Ashcroft is under your bed. I think you are right about destroying the environment. The sky vanished yesterday.
It was bad fifty years ago, but now the fucking feminazis are everywhere. My son just got divorced and lost his kids to a bitch who's got no job and keeps drinking all the time. But hey, the kids belong to their mother, right?
First, good going, if it's true.
Any reduction in spam is good.
Second, if you want to cut delivery of spam down by 90% to 98% get all ISP's to implement greylisting and spamassassin and block port 25 (but provide an easy way for users to request port 25 be opened if they want to run an email server).
Third, track down the dolts that buy from spam messages and permenately take them off the Internet. If the spammers can not make money from these dolts they will have to go get a real job. (to track the dolts down send out spam and wait foor them to reply, go to their homes and cut their power and take their computers away. Get the ISPs to refuse to provide them connectivity.)
The word "theft" means something. Spam certainly does not meet the definition. Nor does unauthorized copying of digitial music files. Just because it is bad does not mean it is theft.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
How could anyone possibly say that unless they were on the Halliburton payroll? You don't fool us. Unless you are brainwashed by the faux news on the corporate media, you know of the Republican agenda of cutting government social spending, destroying the Earth, and getting rid of the Constitution.
When it's easier to imagine yourself as the victim than the villian, then the law seems just.
When it's not, it doesn't.
Most get spam and don't make it.
Very few make CDs, many copy them.
-- Should you believe authority without question?
And I just bought that Alien corpse off Ebay!!
Apparently, there is no real science to back up these claims. All you can come up with is links to opinions by political groups. It is all politics. The numbers come from hot air, not thin air.
No offense, but you've got to be kidding.
You do realize that a large percentage of spam comes from compromised systems, whether it be someones personal home computer hooked up to their DSL/Cable connection or a formmail CGI script sitting on a web site somewhere, right?
A centrally-implemented system that tracks every spammer by IP would do nothing but track everyone BUT the spammer.
As an example, my formmail honeypot gets hundreds of attempted attacks every week. If it was actually sending the spam, a centrally implemented system tracking IPs would accuse me of being the spammer and not the spammers themselves.
Arguably, you could say this would be a good thing -- the power to track all compromised systems -- but I really don't want any government organization that involved in anything related to the net.
Fox News is known for being centrist and balanced. (measured from the center, of course). This puts it in contrast with the left-wing news sources (CNN, CBS, etc). They get attacked a lot by reactionaries who view anything that is not left wing as "right wing". I wonder what they would do if someone actually started a right-wing news network (to the right the way CBS is to the left).
Using that kind of definition, any kind of inconvenience can be called theft. I'm parked in your driveway? I stole your use of it. I secretly poured Miracle Grown on your lawn at night? I stole money by causing you to spend more on lawnmowing gas. Etc etc etc.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Back when the Euro was introduced, 1 Euro was worth 1.something dollars. Over the next few months, it dropped below the 1 dollar treshold and you stupidos were laughing at that European toy money of ours that wasn't worth anything. Nowadays we're on our way to 1 Euro equaling 1.5 dollars (yes, I expect that to happen, even though it's bad for European economy and thus we Europeans are not in favour of it) and (no surprise) again the US stupidos are laughing. I guess that's the best proof that they are ignorant: they always feel like being on the winning side no matter what happens. Like during war: all parties claim "Gott mit uns!" and all of them fail to objectively understand and deal with the naked facts of reality.
By the way, guess who currently is paying less for oil products: Europe or the US...
Maybe you should change your e-mail address, moron.
Hmmm. That explains the fast "Friendship" between Laverne and Shirley. Although, truth be told, the constant attentions of Lenny and Squiggy weren't exactly conducive to their heterosexuality.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I bought one, too. Looked a lot like this. A lot was explained when they told me that alien flesh does not decompose. Rather, the innards evaporate in Earth's atmosphere, leaving a flexible thin exoskeleton that bears a remarkable resemblance to plastic. The "Made in China" sticker does not refer to manufacture. They told me that they had to do this because at one time it was processed through an alien morgue in Shanghai. I feel very fortunate to own an actual corpse of an extraterrestrial.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
My boss asked me to put together a graph of the amount of spam we've blocked over the past 18 months. I've seen a pretty steady (other than the occasional trough or spike) increase in spam the whole time. The number increases week by week and I don't see an end in site, unless you consider the point when my mail gateway gets overwhelmed by the amount. For 1200 email users, we're sitting at just over 150,000 blocked spams per week.
But why is the rum gone?
you should consider posting under your actual account, Mr. Moore. We sure love your view that anything not to the left of Ted Kennedy is right-wing and Republican-controlled. Better adjust your tinfoil helmet: Halliburton has finally learned to penetrate aluminum with its mind-control waves.
Because we want to get free music but not get spam?
Because the federal government shouldn't be so actively fighting on the part of for-profit organizations. The organization should do their own fighting. Beyond which, most /.ers feel the copyright laws that ARE getting inforced are rediculous or outdated.
/.ers that the government whom (again, many /.ers feel) do not focus on real or relevant are finally doing something that pisses off millions of the citizens these politicians represent.
The government 'focusing' on spam (passing the can-spam act, not exactly focusing IMO) means to
We've become a nation of pussywhipped cowards.
Not all critics of the current "Right" are Moore-loving Leftists. I now return you to your regularly scheduled reality inhibitors.
That is a big no-no. You can't talk about climate issues and use actual facts like this.
I block mail from most of China and South Korea, the mail blocked by these rules accounts for about 80-90% of all spam blocked by the server.
Before I started blocking I saved all spam, and looking into the headers I have found that while the mail was received from a host in China or South Korea, the true origin was a host in US, typically an IP in the range 24.0.0.0/8 which is reserved for cable users.
Tell me one thing - did they just wash you brain, or remove it completely?
It is called investigative journalism. If someone makes their long-ago war record the main issue in the election, why not investigate it?
'their slow-to-tell admission of all the Pentagon lies that led to the Iraq invasion'
The retaliation against Iraq had little to do with supposed "Pentagon lies". It had everything to do with their ongoing aggression (2000 attacks against us and counting) involvement in terrorism, and refusal to honor the cease-fire agreements.
"Brief skimming?" FNC gave the drunk driving story heavy rotation.
They are, hence the lawsuits.
"Beyond which, most /.ers feel the copyright laws that ARE getting inforced are rediculous or outdated."
...or (I would argue) inconvenient. Let's be honest, a lot of people (and a lot of Slashdotters, for sure) just want shit for free. Before they were able to copy what they wanted, and to Hell with the law. Now that copyright laws are being enforced, these people feel threatened. Rather than modify their behavior, they instead piss and moan that the law is unfair.
Notice the same indignant outrage coming from spammers every time new anti-spam legislation is passed?
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
Murderous government? Let me tell where you can find a murderous government: don't look any further than the murderous, palestinian government employing child suicide bombers. Go post your nazi ideas on a more fitting platform.
I don't know why Slashdot tolerates anti-semitic crap like this.
jee-pee-ell is teh devil!
I don't understand why Slashbots hate copyright so much. Are they all a bunch of long-bearded, greasy-palmed communists? I think the idea is great but the implementation sucks. Life plus 70 years? For fuck's sake. 10 years ought to be enough for books/movies/music; maybe 15. 5 years for software, maybe 10 for flagship products (Windows, Office, Oracle, Photoshop, etc). Or how about 2 or 3 years for a single version of the software. It's so pathetic that Disney lobbies congress to get the copyright for Steamboat Willie extended another couple decades. God forbid Steamboat Willie come into the public domain. It would be the end of civilization as we know it! Same thing for abandonware. There are some really great classics out there, but nobody sells them. Same thing for old console games, as well. I violate copyrights all the time, but it's not because I don't value the work; it is because I do value the work, but there is no legal way for me to obtain it!
Which was never a proper casus belli.
Iraq was a sovereign nation invaded without proper international test for the case. Yes. The US got away with this time, but it won't happen again any time soon.
Typical and predictable knee-jerk reaction to any criticism of Israel! I'm not defending the Palestianians at all, but am merely pointing out that the Israeli military does their "fair share" of the killing of civilians, yet *I'm* the racist? Oh please. As an athiest that is truly apathetic about other people's ethnicity or skin color, all I see is group A killing group B and vice versa, all for stupid reasons. And America decides to blindly support one side, for equally stupid reasons.
I know. Fox is run by Jews. No wonder they call it faux jews network. "Israel Decides: We Report".
Seems like a no brainer to me. How many websites in China and Korea are being advertised? All the sites I have seen are US companies, or 'off shore' sites trying to keep their servers under cover and away from the long arm of the law. I can't remember the last traceroute that returned a .kr destination, though I had one from china last week. I do receive a lot of .jp, and way more than I would expect since I don't speak the language much less buy any products from there. By far and large the US takes the prize.
Ok. So what you're saying is that even when a woman says "Yes" it may mean "No" and if that's the case she may later bring up charges and I'll be convicted as a rapist?
What a wonderful world we live in...
Who would have thunk it?
No! It's a *SIG*. Keep the Special Interest Groups away! (Con joke!)
And that would have affected his ability as a president just how? He's not going to be driving a car around, now is he?
Typical liberal bullshit...
It is a tiny share. Israel tends to prosecute and punish those who target civilians. The aggressors, in contrast, do not. Targetting civilians is their main goal. ' As an athiest...'
What does your religion have to do with it? Atheists after all have a rather bad record in relation to ethnic issues (Soviet persecution of Jews on religious grounds), and especially tolerance of other religions.
' And America decides to blindly support one side '
The support for the defenders is not blind at all.
racist
Scumbag. The number one reason Slashdot will never be a number one site.
Well, I'm paying about 1.69$ US per Gallon of gasoline.
1.69 US is about 1.25 Euro
1 Gallon is about 3.75 liters
So 1.25 Euro per 3.75 liter comes to about 0.33 Euro per liter. How much does one pay per liter (on average) in some of the major European areas? (it's been about 6 years since I last visited Europe)
It's somewhere around 1.0-1.5 euros. Your point is? Over here we believe in preserving the environment.
...we've already done this http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/25/141 8247&tid=111
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
You're just trying to excuse the factthat you're a moron with neither a sense of humor nor a sense of language.
I'd rather see 'viola' than 'wa-la'...
Decay! Decay! Decay! -Helium
Nowadays we're on our way to 1 Euro equaling 1.5 dollars [...] and (no surprise) again the US stupidos are laughing
...).
... and less Euro). Essentially, everyone is watching the dollars in their hands become a more and more useless comodity that eventually no one will be interested in holding. The central banks are already diversifying, but the game is becoming "the later you jump out of the wagon, the more screwed you will get" and possible solutions are few.
I would call you a moron straight up, but it would be sarcasm through the tears, since I myself am not happy with the situation, which I will correctly describe to you below.
The "US stupidos" might not be so stupid, unfortunately. A weak dollar (while making their Walmart-sold imported goods expensive) is making the debts cheap for the U.S. For a simple reason: because the dollar-denominated debt (government bonds mainly) nominally stays the same (plus of course interest). The debt is however a burden on the side of those who are being owed - non-US-currency-based economies. The U.S. government owes to those who hold the U.S. government bonds (the bonds are sold by the government whenever it needs to finance its activities, examples: war, budget incompetency/deficit, project,
The current major holders of U.S. government bonds are foreign banks (mainly central banks like the European Central Bank or the Chinese, Japanese and other equivalents of a central bank).
The dollar being weaker and weaker, their holdings for which they paid big money at the time (let's say a bond for 100 Euro) are becoming worth less and less (75, 50,
By the way, your comment about who is paying less for oil products, Europe or the U.S. (it is the U.S. in case you didn't know) has nothing to do with this discussion.
I'm sure this is a problem, but it may also depend on the case and the specifics of how it was prosecuted. There doesn't seem to be enough information here to be sure.
Many countries' legal systems are designed so that money made from illegal activities is... well... illegal. The spammers might have been required to pay back any money that was made from spamming in addition to the fines, or it might have been included in the fine. (Or alternatively they might have ended up keeping it.)
Of course, if the prosecution was only able to specify a particular instance of spamming among many to prosecute on, the fine probably wouldn't have made a difference.
" Why is it that when governments enforce copyright laws, people piss and moan about the other more important things they should be focusing on"
Have you got examples of people doing this? Or are you just setting up a straw-man?
"Troll or not, he makes a point."
No, he doesn't. For one thing, people generally do not moan that government should look the other way when they are copying cds. He is setting up an argument that he can refute, even if nobody ever uses that argument.
Second, he is asking "why is it". Who could ever answer that? Can the OP look into people's heads? Can I?
He is just trolling, and you know it.
This entire discussion is off-topic, including the post to which I replied.
But before calling people morons, you should read their posts and find out what they really say, not what you think they say. You seem to have completely misread what I wrote. I wrote about morons who blindly write about stuff they do not understand. I did not write about enocomy.
By the way, the answer you give to my question is wrong. It's the Americans who are paying more. I wasn't thinking of government taxation on individual people buying gasoline, but on a larger scale. The oil price is expressed in dollars and the diminishing value of the dollar is, for the European economies, a compensation for rising oil prices. See also this definitely non-european site. Until such time as the OPEC gets it and swithces to using euros as their reference, obviously, but so far it ain't happening yet. (See, NOW I wrote something about enonomy.)
Here you go.
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
Ah, OK, you see, you can prove anything with facts.
So, now you have identified the people who think the US government should focus on catching spammers rather than filesharers, why don't you go ask them your question. Seems to me, they're the only ones who can answer it.
Maybe you didn't get what I was saying. I was saying that the "US stupidos" are not stupid. It is the U.S. government, which has influence on the exchange rate (through its influence on the interest rates - interest rates are nothing more but cost of capital in that particular currency).
The "common working population" continues contributing to the economy. But that's about where it ends for them. The U.S. *government* is the one who can decide to or not to exercise steps to influence the fall of the dollar. And this time, they choose NOT to intervene.
Which is why it is quite okay for these people (who you called 'stupidos') to laugh all that they can about the EUR/USD rates, since regardless of the fact that it is bad for Europe, the situation is indeed very good for the U.S. economy - why? well, that's what I tried to explain in my last poast (and show you that it's the U.S. debt and deficit that is becoming easier to finance for the U.S. government).
Your last chance for me to make you understand reality is to tell you this: guess who eventually pays the U.S. government debt? U.S. government revenue. And guess how the U.S. government obtains revenue? From taxing people - and yes, "on a larger scale".
As to the oil prices, I think your 'non-european' site says it well directly on the homepage: "oil prices in dollars rose by 162 percent from their low point in January 2002, they climbed by less than half that rate measured in euros, 77 percent" -- This is clear evidence that rising oil prices are a supply/demand problem only up to the 77 percent increase. Anything above that all the way up to 162 amounts to the reaction to the falling value of the U.S. dollar (and thus repricing so that the price in dollars always reflects the latest exchange rate).
By the way, the answer you give to my question is wrong
You are mistaken. Here, look at this:
Let's assume X liters of oil cost you 100 Euro in January 2002. At that time, the exchange rate was 0.9531, which means that the same amount of oil would cost 95.31 USD.
Now fast-forward to 2004. The oil prices in Euro rose 77% compared to Jan 2002, right? That means X liters no longer cost 100 Euro, but 177 Euro. Calculating how much that is in USD based on nowaday's exchange rates at around 1.3587, this is 240.49 USD.
However, the X amount of oil that you bought in the U.S. at 95.31 USD in January 2002 has undergone an increase too, reportedly a 162% increase, making it 249.71 USD.
So the difference between 240.49 USD (price in Europe) and 249.71 USD (price in the U.S.) is 3.8%. Oil appears 3.8% more expensive in the U.S. than in Europe. This is too small for it to be anything more than a roundoff error (margin of error in the reported % increases must be around 1%, currency calculations roundoffs on the last 2 digits also contribute, etc.).
OIL HASN'T BECOME ANY MORE EXPENSIVE IN THE U.S. THAN IT HAS ALREADY BECOME MORE EXPENSIVE IN EUROPE.
If it did, this would be an arbitrage opportunity and the markets would soon adjust their prices (right after Joe Anonymous Schmoe would have rented an old tanker and started transporting oil from Europe and selling it in the U.S.).
Supply/demand, baby...
Now who's the moron?
No, he doesn't. For one thing, people generally do not moan that government should look the other way when they are copying cds.
You're new to slashdot, aren't you?
He is just trolling, and you know it.
That's the funny thing with trolling -- it works best when there is some truth to it.
You still havn't got it. When I talk about US stupidos, I talk about the idiots who post on /. using whatever argument to "prove" their point of US supremacy, irrespective of what they posted last time round when the situation was different. I do NOT talk about the US government! Get that, you bonehead: it's not because I "attack" a few Americans that I attack the US! Learn to read and stop feeling targeted "by everybody out there".
And please also stop using round-off errors to get away from any calculation that doesn't suit your needs.
Sigh...
"Some truth", is that the same sort of thing as "a little bit pregnant"?
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