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How Spam Was Done 70 Years Ago
bitrex writes "Modern Mechanix recently ran a reprint of a 1934 article describing
the problem of offshore pirate radio stations broadcasting advertisements and drowning out local, licensed radio programs. 'The primary purpose of the unlicensed broadcast station was to advertise the gambling, liquor, and other dubious pleasure activities of the ship upon which it was built ... they found other sundry rackets, such as a fortune telling program ... After numerous unsuccessful attempts of a local nature, the floating broadcasting establishment was silenced, but only after the state department at Washington, D. C, had made diplomatic representations which forced a Central American country to cancel the ship's registry.' The article also has a great artist's conception of what might be called a machine age 'data haven' bobbing in international waters in the Gulf of Mexico."
My work here is dung.
There is nothing new under the sun. You can always find "people being people" throughout history. And bad people are always looking for some angle to exploit the masses.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
What is it about spammers and tropical areas?
If you have to relocate to international waters, and you have a choice of tropical paradise or freezing your ass off somewhere in tbe North Atlantic, that's not a really tough call.
Also, from a practical standpoint, there's just a ton of countries bordering on the Gulf/Caribbean and finding one sympathetic to your plight (or more likely, one who will take some of your money in exchange for looking the other way) shouldn't be hard. On the other hand, in the North Atlantic or in the Pacific offshore of the US all you've got is Canadia and Mexico, our good NAFTA buddies who wouldn't foster such shenanigans. At least, not for the relatively paltry sums that spammers have at their disposal (compared to, say, oil companies).
As per Futurama - In the future, SPAM will be broadcast directly into our dreams. "That's awful!" says Fry. "It's like brainwashing." "Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?" asks Leela. "Not in our dreams!" replies Fry. "Only on TV and radio. And in magazines. And movies. And at ballgames. And on buses. And milk cartons. And t-shirts. And bananas. And written on the sky. But not in dreams! No sirree!"
The Economist had an article a month or so ago about spam over the new invention of the telegraph. Several wealthy men in London were awakened late one evening by a telegram. Believing it to be of importance, after all only something important would be sent so late, they anxiously read it.
It was from a dentist. It was advertising his services.
The men were outraged, obviously and started the first campaign against spam. The point is that this is hardly shocking. It's always been around, but is simply much more prevelant now with the ease of email. I remember being a kid before caller ID and call blocking and getting lots of telemarketer phone calls at our house. Sometimes we got the door to door salesmen. Times change, spam doesn't.
I'm sure eventually we'll all get email spam problem licked. Then we'll have to deal with ads for Lightspeed Briefs beamed directly into our dreams.
Well, thanks to the Internet, I'm now bored with sex.
Screw the technology of broadcasting, I want to know how these pirates steadied a piano and a full lounge on a floating radio station. This design would not "float" these days: no cubicles and no manager's office.
I notice that there are also no engineer or crew quarters. Fun lot, these pirates! And what, no Marconi and cross-bones flag?
This seems as outlandish as some of the scare tactics used now to "warn" us about terrorism. I bet people were just as gullible then as they are now. Really, just stick to the facts, and stop making sh!t up, please.
Not to mention the method of nailing domestic "radio pirates." The pirates claim that their meager 5w output does not cross state lines. The government uses super-high-sensitivity detection equipment to prove that the signals do indeed cross state lines. Seems a bit nit-pickish to me, as the average Joe Radio would pick up more powerful stations. But, as Bureaucrat Number 1.0 says, "you are technically correct - the best kind of correct."
Your post advocates a
( ) technical (X) legislative ( ) market-based ( ) vigilante
approach to defeating the menace of playbills. 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 used to vary from state to state before FDR passed a new law.)
( ) Bill posters can easily use it to harvest better locations
( ) Billboards and other legitimate posters would be affected
(X) No one will be able to find the knave or collect the money
( ) It is defenseless against brute force attacks
( ) It will stop playbills for two weeks and then we'll be stuck with it
( ) Users of large surfaces will not put up with it
( ) Sears will not put up with it
( ) The police will not put up with it
( ) Requires too much cooperation from playbill posters
( ) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
( ) Many postboard users cannot afford to lose business or alienate potential employers
( ) Playbill posters don't care about unusable surfaces in their plans
( ) Anyone could anonymously destroy anyone else's job or business
Specifically, your plan fails to account for
( ) Laws expressly prohibiting it
(X) Lack of centrally controlling authority for flat surfaces in public view
(X) Undocumented aliens who post the playbills
( ) Ease of searching tiny set of all flat surfaces in the area
( ) Men of ill repute
(X) Jurisdictional problems
( ) Unpopularity of fanciful new taxes
( ) Public reluctance to accept fanciful money not backed by gold
( ) Huge existing capital investment in buildings
( ) Susceptibility of buildings without flat surfaces to collapse
( ) Willingness of users to read playbills whilst passing by
(X) Legions of unattended buildings
( ) Eternal arms race involved in all mointoring approaches
( ) Extreme profitability of playbill posting
(X) Forgery of others' names
( ) Politicians ill-informed of new-fangled devices
( ) Extreme foolishness on the part of people who buy from playbill advertisements
( ) Dishonesty on the part of playbill posters themselves
( ) Labor costs that are unaffected by careful monitoring
( ) Tacks and glue
and the following philosophical objections may also apply:
(X) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever been shown workable
( ) Any scheme based on requirement to leave the program is intolerable
( ) Legislation of bold message headings is not Constitutionally authorized
( ) Blacklists are humbug
( ) Whitelists are humbug
( ) We should be able to talk about alcohol without being censored
( ) Countermeasures should not involve wire fraud or check fraud
( ) Countermeasures should not involve sabotage of public areas
( ) Countermeasures must work if phased in gradually
( ) Posting messages should be free
( ) Why should we have to trust you and your file warehouses?
(X) Jolly-good measures do nothing to solve the problem
( ) Temporary/one-time postal addresses are cumbersome
( ) Killing them that way is not tortuous enough
Furthermore, this is what I think about you:
(X) Sorry friend, but I don't think it would work.
( ) This is a confounded idea, and you're a confounded person for suggesting it.
( ) Nice try, knave! I shall find out where you live and burn your rental down forthright!
Apology to Ubuntu forum.