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CAN-SPAM Act Turns 5 Today — What Went Wrong?

Posted by kdawson on from the calling-mister-hormel dept.

alphadogg writes "Five years ago, the US tech industry, politicians, and Internet users were wringing their hands over the escalating problem of spam. This prompted Congress to pass a landmark anti-spam bill known as the CAN-SPAM Act in December 2003. Fast forward five years. The number of spam messages sent over the Internet every day has grown more than 10-fold, topping 164 billion worldwide in August 2008. Almost 97% of all e-mails are spam, costing US ISPs and corporations an estimated $42 billion a year. What went wrong here?"

2 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Singularity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    As usual, this is the answer.

  2. Re:Laws just hamper the law abiding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    We might as well give up and spend the money on something useful.

    You mean like Viagra? I just got an email saying I should buy some.