SpamSlayer - should we DDOS spammers?

pointbeing writes "Just read this article about a company called Blue Security that essentially floods a spammer's website with requests to unsubscribe members - we're talking thousands of requests per day - the company's CEO says that fighting back by "inducing loss" against spammers is the only way to eventually stop them. Although I hate spam as much as the next guy, is participating in a DDOS attack the way to bring spammers to their knees? If it's okay in this instance, it it okay to DDOS the next guy who does something we don't like? "

Comments

The truely evil go free..

[Tominva1045]

The truly evil spammers aren't going to follow the email advertising rules. They will hide where they are coming from or pay someone else to do it.

If the U.S Post Office sends people mail they take it.

When people watch TV they are inundated with 20 mins of commericals per hour; no choice.

Yet if a company follows the current federal laws on sending email they still get hammered. Just once I want to see a story about someone dumping an 18 wheeler truck of mail they got from the Post Office back in their parking lot.

The hypocracy of the hipster-dufus-script-writing-underemployed-geekdom can not be underestimated.

Re:Sophistry at its finest...

[YomikoReadman]

I never said that it was a valid solution to all problems; portraying my statement as such is irresponsible and to me, quite offensive. Yes, as with every form of legal punishment in the world, there is a time and a place for proper application. The situations you and others have described certainly fit the 'do not do this' mantra, which leads to situations where direct dealing with the hosting ISP is a more desireable situation.

Saying that we shouldn't do this at all for fear of any collateral damage is ridiculous, for all the reasons I've already mentioned.

Re:Sophistry at its finest...

[YomikoReadman]

For someone who has continually missed my points, I still find that you aren't reading everything I've had to say on this topic. DDoSing your neighbor, as I said, isn't acceptable. However, letting spammers get away with this isn't either.

There is a point where it stops being acceptable to DDoS and otherwise bring down servers. I've said that repeatably. When are you going to realize that I have?