Actually, you're a bit off kilter here, because MY question was hypothetical, I'm a programmer and dislike spam just as much as you:)
However, some of my clients ARE legitimate businesses who rely soley on direct email marketing. For one particular client, I have studied his database, I have studied his apps. I have determined that he is 100% correct and legal is his methods. He does not buy databases, people opt into his directly. Yet, he has been kicked off of three networks (MAJOR PROVIDERS) because of this. They simply do not care about whether he is legit or not, they just want the complaints to stop....
here's the anology we should be using:
"Judge I was doing the speedlimit, I was driving a moped, I can't go any faster than 35mph".
Judge: "Ya, well I have a lot of people complaining about your moped. So, whether you are guilty or not, we are taking away your moped and your license, slapping you with a $25,000 fine and 90 days in jail. Maybe we won't hear anymore complaints."
Simply put, if you are a Direct email marketer you are a target regardless if you follow the letter of the law or not. Why? Simply because the public is ignorant and can't remember what they opted in for, and simply because ISPs are sick of hearing the complaints.
All said and done, I am NOT a proponent for spam. However, there needs to be a system in place where this CAN be done legally and offenders are punished. Not everyone who Direct Markets is a spammer, remember that.
"Nice to get a head start on what we'll be cloning next year"
Typical. You people have complained about MS stealing for years, but the first thing you think of when a new MS product appears is ripping it off (and all those MP3s and movies you stole, hypocrite!).
Maybe if you stop and think about it, you are that different from Bill at all, except you're uglier and he has a SHITLOAD more money than you. Oh, so now you realize you suck.
What I am referring to fits WITHIN your scope of rules... people often forget that they opt in, or that they opted into a list which clearly and in plain english states their info will be shared..... regardless of how YOU feel about this it is legitimate, legal, and entirely professional. It's not a corporation's fault that end-users are forgetful or do not ready everything they sign into. Otherwise I would be speeding all the time and just telling the judge "Oh, I 'm sorry I didn't see the sign" or "I forgot there were speed limits!" Your analogy to rape is certainly not even a legitimate analogy, rape destroys people's lives, email does not.
How do you protect those companies who are using legal means of targeted email marketing?
I see many people who believe that they are receiving spam when they have either knowingly or unknowingly opted into these lists, which makes it perfectly legal. However, these people report them to their ISP and these companies get blacklisted unfairly. For many companies this is their bread and butter, and although what they are doing is completely legal and legit they suffer because of spammers.
My idea was to have an Internet Direct Marketing Agency. With this agency direct email marketer's must register and have an "Internet Advertiser's ID". This ID would be paid for on a yearly basis and based upon the advertiser's volume. The fees would be spilt among the ISPs who had mail sent through their network, to pay for this excess bandwidth usage (a per transaction tax, essentially). Additionally, an email proxy would check incoming "spam" for that ID and if it did not check and match to the email server's IP it would be tossed as spam.... make sense?
Another person wasting their time and trying to waste mine with something this freaking stupid. Where' the practicality, the cool factor (besides the STUPIDITY of water cooling anything electronic), the actual usefulness?
A Mac and PC in the same case eh? Perfect! When morons can't figure out how to run AOL they won't know if they should call Microsoft or Apple... should cut down on the tech support factor....
What's even more fuckin funny is there are three posts AFTER mine which have at least 2 (some 5) + ratings for being FUNNY?! WTF happened to redundant you cocksuckers?
What's really fuckin funny about this is that the mods gave me a -1 and you a +1.... mine for rendundancy even tho it was posted 14 seconds BEFORE the other redundant post... hmmmm. me smells asshole.
Develop a simulation of a bunch of programmers trying to create a "from-scratch" Linux game. Call it "Open-Source Mayhem"
The caveat is that most of the developer's have major ego problems, as prevelant in the UNIX/Linux community. So you have to negotiate with all these "unpaid" open-source programmers to try to get them to work together.
Once this is accomplished you have to try to get the programmers to aggregate their skills and knowledge to come up with something that won't be far to complex and boring for the general public. Your developer's will probably spend 12 weeks discussing security of the game so that malicious players won't hack into your config file and steal your private information.
In the end the developer's all lose funding due to an enourmous economic crash and the fact that NOBODY is stupid enough to develop a Linux only game, considering the massively low market-share of the OS and the fact that the sales won't even come close to covering the development costs of the project.
At this point you are forced to negotiate the sale of the game to Microsoft, who in the end turns it into an X-Box game and becomes a best-seller.
Is that you guys sit here an bitch, make fun of, and generally waste time talking about what MS and Bill Gates have done so wrong, yet he is the one with how many billion in the bank? Looks like your plan for riches and glory is off to a good start!
Never satisfied with anything, the/. user's decided to go an a Crusade vs. the world. If it is well liked by the masses, hate it. If it is unusual, exceptionally clumsy, not accepted by the masses, we will love it. Until people start to like it, then we will learn to hate it. Hey wait..... George Bush must be a/. user too!
Regardless of all the "privacy issues" people talk about, what are you worried about if your credit is good?
If you have bad credit then I wouldn't hire you to manage aspects of my company either because you obviously aren't responsible enough to handle your own money, why would I believe you are repsonsible enough to manage my people or money?
In any case, if the job is good, and they pay good, I would submit to a credit check in a heartbeat.
There are many viable alternatives which can and will be as cheap as floppies eventually. These technologies are currently more expensive due to the total lack of use. Example is the Zip or the Super Drive (f/ Sony). These are both very portable, hold a large amount of data, and can be bootable.
If enough manufacturuers equip their machines with one of these (please, let's stay standardized!) the prices on the media will drop dramatically due to the large amount of product consumers will buy and the competition to obtain these customers. We have seen the same with floppies, CD's, DVD's and even backup media such as tapes.
AMD has been in business for years. They are doing something okay because they haven't been trampled by Intel. I prefer Intel processors, but I respect AMD for holding their position for so many years.
Basically what I am trying to say is that AMD must have an inkling of what they are doing to make it this far. If they see a reason to hold back on the Athalon64 I believe there would be excellent reason for doing so. After all, you and I certainly are running a company worth $1.865 billion:)
Actually I smoke marijuana. I know it's illegal. I copy MP3's. I know it's illegal. I break the speed limit on the highway (ooohh!). I know it's illegal. Yet if I ever get busted I know that I have to accept the consequences because I knew it was illegal.
Whatever you believe it doesn't matter, because if you do it with full knowledge of the law you need to step up like a man and accept the consequences of your actions if you do get caught. The most important thing you can do is learn from your mistake and make sure you do one of two things: Never get caught doing it again, or never do it again.
Did you come to any realizations after being sentenced? Like "Stealing software is bad cuz I got busted" or maybe "It's fine to steal software as long as you don't share it with everyone else".
Maybe the real moral of the story is "Illegal is illegal and if you do it and get busted you deserve everything you get", because in the end the people you are stealing from are the very people who are gonna pay your way for the next 33 months of your life: the general public.
Slashdot Mirror
ROFL, touche`! "Enterprise Level Networks" my ass!
I agree with the Coward. Of course I am biased, I hate the mods.
Actually, you're a bit off kilter here, because MY question was hypothetical, I'm a programmer and dislike spam just as much as you :)
However, some of my clients ARE legitimate businesses who rely soley on direct email marketing. For one particular client, I have studied his database, I have studied his apps. I have determined that he is 100% correct and legal is his methods. He does not buy databases, people opt into his directly. Yet, he has been kicked off of three networks (MAJOR PROVIDERS) because of this. They simply do not care about whether he is legit or not, they just want the complaints to stop....
here's the anology we should be using:
"Judge I was doing the speedlimit, I was driving a moped, I can't go any faster than 35mph".
Judge: "Ya, well I have a lot of people complaining about your moped. So, whether you are guilty or not, we are taking away your moped and your license, slapping you with a $25,000 fine and 90 days in jail. Maybe we won't hear anymore complaints."
Simply put, if you are a Direct email marketer you are a target regardless if you follow the letter of the law or not. Why? Simply because the public is ignorant and can't remember what they opted in for, and simply because ISPs are sick of hearing the complaints.
All said and done, I am NOT a proponent for spam. However, there needs to be a system in place where this CAN be done legally and offenders are punished. Not everyone who Direct Markets is a spammer, remember that.
"Nice to get a head start on what we'll be cloning next year" Typical. You people have complained about MS stealing for years, but the first thing you think of when a new MS product appears is ripping it off (and all those MP3s and movies you stole, hypocrite!). Maybe if you stop and think about it, you are that different from Bill at all, except you're uglier and he has a SHITLOAD more money than you. Oh, so now you realize you suck.
What I am referring to fits WITHIN your scope of rules... people often forget that they opt in, or that they opted into a list which clearly and in plain english states their info will be shared..... regardless of how YOU feel about this it is legitimate, legal, and entirely professional. It's not a corporation's fault that end-users are forgetful or do not ready everything they sign into. Otherwise I would be speeding all the time and just telling the judge "Oh, I 'm sorry I didn't see the sign" or "I forgot there were speed limits!" Your analogy to rape is certainly not even a legitimate analogy, rape destroys people's lives, email does not.
How do you protect those companies who are using legal means of targeted email marketing? I see many people who believe that they are receiving spam when they have either knowingly or unknowingly opted into these lists, which makes it perfectly legal. However, these people report them to their ISP and these companies get blacklisted unfairly. For many companies this is their bread and butter, and although what they are doing is completely legal and legit they suffer because of spammers. My idea was to have an Internet Direct Marketing Agency. With this agency direct email marketer's must register and have an "Internet Advertiser's ID". This ID would be paid for on a yearly basis and based upon the advertiser's volume. The fees would be spilt among the ISPs who had mail sent through their network, to pay for this excess bandwidth usage (a per transaction tax, essentially). Additionally, an email proxy would check incoming "spam" for that ID and if it did not check and match to the email server's IP it would be tossed as spam.... make sense?
Any GUI? Maybe I can learn to play! Hopefully there is an F1 key too.
Another person wasting their time and trying to waste mine with something this freaking stupid. Where' the practicality, the cool factor (besides the STUPIDITY of water cooling anything electronic), the actual usefulness?
A Mac and PC in the same case eh? Perfect! When morons can't figure out how to run AOL they won't know if they should call Microsoft or Apple... should cut down on the tech support factor....
What's even more fuckin funny is there are three posts AFTER mine which have at least 2 (some 5) + ratings for being FUNNY?! WTF happened to redundant you cocksuckers?
Did I mention the mods are homsexual pickpockets who haven't gotten laid in a couple years?
What's really fuckin funny about this is that the mods gave me a -1 and you a +1.... mine for rendundancy even tho it was posted 14 seconds BEFORE the other redundant post... hmmmm. me smells asshole.
Rock on dude! Where's the license for this media mofo!?
Develop a simulation of a bunch of programmers trying to create a "from-scratch" Linux game. Call it "Open-Source Mayhem"
The caveat is that most of the developer's have major ego problems, as prevelant in the UNIX/Linux community. So you have to negotiate with all these "unpaid" open-source programmers to try to get them to work together.
Once this is accomplished you have to try to get the programmers to aggregate their skills and knowledge to come up with something that won't be far to complex and boring for the general public. Your developer's will probably spend 12 weeks discussing security of the game so that malicious players won't hack into your config file and steal your private information.
In the end the developer's all lose funding due to an enourmous economic crash and the fact that NOBODY is stupid enough to develop a Linux only game, considering the massively low market-share of the OS and the fact that the sales won't even come close to covering the development costs of the project.
At this point you are forced to negotiate the sale of the game to Microsoft, who in the end turns it into an X-Box game and becomes a best-seller.
Look at their cheese for god's sake!
Is that you guys sit here an bitch, make fun of, and generally waste time talking about what MS and Bill Gates have done so wrong, yet he is the one with how many billion in the bank? Looks like your plan for riches and glory is off to a good start!
Never satisfied with anything, the /. user's decided to go an a Crusade vs. the world. If it is well liked by the masses, hate it. If it is unusual, exceptionally clumsy, not accepted by the masses, we will love it. Until people start to like it, then we will learn to hate it. Hey wait..... George Bush must be a /. user too!
Regardless of all the "privacy issues" people talk about, what are you worried about if your credit is good?
If you have bad credit then I wouldn't hire you to manage aspects of my company either because you obviously aren't responsible enough to handle your own money, why would I believe you are repsonsible enough to manage my people or money?
In any case, if the job is good, and they pay good, I would submit to a credit check in a heartbeat.
There are many viable alternatives which can and will be as cheap as floppies eventually. These technologies are currently more expensive due to the total lack of use. Example is the Zip or the Super Drive (f/ Sony). These are both very portable, hold a large amount of data, and can be bootable.
If enough manufacturuers equip their machines with one of these (please, let's stay standardized!) the prices on the media will drop dramatically due to the large amount of product consumers will buy and the competition to obtain these customers. We have seen the same with floppies, CD's, DVD's and even backup media such as tapes.
Personally I will just continue buying good coffee: Peet's!
:)
I wonder what they could do for semen.... my gf would certainly be happier
Hey wait, doesn't /. run on UNIX........
What's linux? :P
AMD has been in business for years. They are doing something okay because they haven't been trampled by Intel. I prefer Intel processors, but I respect AMD for holding their position for so many years.
:)
Basically what I am trying to say is that AMD must have an inkling of what they are doing to make it this far. If they see a reason to hold back on the Athalon64 I believe there would be excellent reason for doing so. After all, you and I certainly are running a company worth $1.865 billion
Actually I smoke marijuana. I know it's illegal. I copy MP3's. I know it's illegal. I break the speed limit on the highway (ooohh!). I know it's illegal. Yet if I ever get busted I know that I have to accept the consequences because I knew it was illegal.
Whatever you believe it doesn't matter, because if you do it with full knowledge of the law you need to step up like a man and accept the consequences of your actions if you do get caught. The most important thing you can do is learn from your mistake and make sure you do one of two things: Never get caught doing it again, or never do it again.
The Sequel will be just like Oz on HBO......
Did you come to any realizations after being sentenced? Like "Stealing software is bad cuz I got busted" or maybe "It's fine to steal software as long as you don't share it with everyone else".
Maybe the real moral of the story is "Illegal is illegal and if you do it and get busted you deserve everything you get", because in the end the people you are stealing from are the very people who are gonna pay your way for the next 33 months of your life: the general public.