He CAN-SPAM... the law says so!
on
Spammer Sues SpamCop
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· Score: 5, Insightful
The law flat out says that he CAN SPAM. Say what you want about the guy, he's a big follower of truth in labeling....
Tthe key event is that when every you give your e-mail address to any site on the Internet you usually have the chance to opt in to getting commercial e-mail. Opt in with one of Richter's site, and just like the name of his company implies, you opt in REAL BIG to absolutely anybody who wants to Spam you via him. Oh, the dangers of leaving a pre-checked checkbox still checked when you submit the form.
Once you're caught in Richter's web, the only way out is to send an unsubscribe request email exactly the way that the CAN-SPAM says you should. Sure, responding to the unsubscribe link is a great way to get more spam from unethical spammers... but it's the only way to stop getting spam from a compling-to-the-letter-of-the-law spammer. He's untouchable, he'll plead guilty as charged to being scum... but he's breaking no laws.
SpamCop's free to spread its low opinion about OptInRealBig, but they have to be very careful they keep what they say in opinion territory. If SpamCop's willing to publish nameless acusations that OptInRealBig is sending e-mail to people who didn't really opt in, they'd better be sure those people have their facts straight. Richter's counter is that all these people really did opt in, they just don't remember when they did so. If they'd simply provide their e-mail address, Richter could likely tell them at what site and when they made their mistake of signaling that they were opting in, and if they've just send a proper e-mail to his unsubscribe address, he'll gladly unsubscribe them. But since they won't disclose their address, he can't do much for them.
The bit-counting scheme would rank you as being seven-bits away from most other colleges rather than eight-bits... because you're only off by one being in 129 instead of 128.
We didn't start the fire... it's been always burning since the world's been turning... we didn't start the fire... no, we didn't light it but we tried to fight it...
Here's a better way to figure out how to get an abserdly fast connection rate...
First... broadcast a request for the file (specified by a hash value, just like BitTorrent does it.) to the local subnet. If anybody hears this request and responds with an "I've got it!"... bingo. There's no need to go to the external network. This file is already locally available, so copy the file using a LAN-protocol that assumes insane speeds and little packet loss. If nobody answers, you've wasted less than a kilobyte of local bandwidth and you can move on...
Now, send an HTTPS request for a list of the people known to be making the file available to the main tracker-server. However, there's a little trickery at this stage. Instead of just returning a flat list, the tracker-server notices the "apparent IP address" where the request came from. For those directly connected to the Internet, this is their true IP address... however, for those going through a NAT situation, this is the outwardly-visible IP address that speaks for the true client. The list is sorted by whatever server's apparent IP address most bitwise matches the requester's address. This leads to some interesting situations... - If there's a server with the same apparent IP address as the client IP address... this means that the content is being offered up within the local network again, just not on the same subnet. There's no reason to involve the NAT any further... we just need to introduce two computers that are behind the the same NAT/Firewall to each other. Again, a local-area transfer protocol gets pulled out. - Now we start getting to the level where we have to assume things. For example, it's rather safe to assume that a subnet whose IP space is one, two or three bits away from my subnet is most likely to be "somewhat local" to me. Those are the servers that get tested first for connection speed... and you keep going down the list until you have relable connections to enough servers to end up maxing-out your incoming bandwidth. At that point, you'll have your file shortly.
An interesting point is that this will end up detecting most i2-links because there's a cluster of colleges in the 128.x.x.x IP space because those were the first 3-octet ranges handed out and the colleges who were the first in line to get those were also the ones who were first to sign up for internet2. So, just by giving preference to those servers who are within the same first-eight-bits of IP space as you, you're more likely to find a faster link...
Why does "use of a P2P application" equate with "copyright piracy?" That's like saying "use of an automobile" equates with "running down pedestrians." Just because the app *could* be used for nefarious purposes doesn't mean there aren't a whole lot of really cool *legal* things that can be done with it as well.
Because most P2P applications these days are specializing in identity obsfucation, and being able to withdraw the sharing as quickly as possible.
To warp your car analogy... it's like GM putting out cars with license-plate-blockers and pumps to spray blood-cleanup chemicals so that when cars are used illegally, it's easier to cover up the crime.
There aren't very many technical developments left to do in P2P in terms of efficient data-moving. The challenge is now a social one... convincing people that they want to be the content-pushers. And really, in the consumer world, it'd be highly useful ISPs would mirror popular legal-to-download content locally and in a way such that when a consumer wants to download that content, the user (or at least their computer's download client) realizes that it's best to go to the local copy on their own network rather than out to the general Internet.
Accessing something being shared on the same switch in your dorm is much much much faster than anything i2 can ever dream of...
Really, all i2Hub really just needs to do is post a list of mirrors of useful for-public-distribution content Linux ISOs, or game patches vendors want help in distributing... so that students realize when there is already a local-to-them mirror, and realize that I2 bandwidth is more plentiful than Internet bandwidth on a college campus. If people would just download from the most efficient location when a massive file is being distributed, and universities were willing to tolerate such legally-run mirrors sprining up on their campus... it'd be a win-win for all involved.
The key is to keep the copyright bears away by limiting the admission of new files into this scheme to those whose publishers want them to be be there.
Or just a proof that given time, bandwidth usage will fill to whatever pipe it's given no matter how fat a pipe you supply. Afterall, as our hard drives got bigger, so did the programs we were given to store on them...
This is purely a social networking system rather than a technical one. If I'm on an i2-enabled conenction, and you're on an i2-enabled connection, then any direct connection between me and you over any protocol is going to route over an i2 bandwidth link rather than going out over the open Internet link between our two sites...
Really, this is like when the Starr Report against then-president Clinton, and all sorts of ISPs who don't do content mirroring did a mirror for that document, since it was long and going to be frequenly downloaded that day. By keeping that traffic local on their own network, their outgoing Internet line was freed up for other traffic.
Knowing who is closer to your network-wise, which isn't aways the shortest physical difference or lowest number of network hops, but the one who has the most available bandwidth on the path that leads from you to them and back, when given a choice between mirrors is always very useful.
So, really, i2hub's goal is to just point out where useful content is on i2 rather than change any routing tables...
From the i2hub site... We are all from universities, so it's obvious that this service is for educational purposes only.
Yeah... right. And I'm sure that NCAA sporting events such as College Football and March Madness are for educational rather than commerical gain too.:)
That's kinda interesting because a bit ago in the Atlanta market, CBS's local affiliate was bought out by UPN, therefore pushing CBS into the UHF range (not that it matters for cable, but for over-the-air it was quite a shock).
At least I think that's the way it happened. Perhaps it was FOX now that I think about it.
No... Atlanta was one of the cites affected by the "New World Order" situation in 1994.
The New World Station group, which for a long time was an operator of mostly CBS affiliates had their contract with CBS up for renewal, and shocked the world by jumping to Fox on all of its stations. (The station group would later be sold to Fox, making all of the stations network O&Os, but that would come later.) In Atlanta, that meant Fox moved from an O&O station in the form of WATL 36, to the former CBS affiliate at WAGA 5... while Fox still held control of WATL making it unavailable to CBS.
All of the VHF channels were spoken for, and CBS found itself without a home. Desperate to secure an affiliate, CBS was forced into buying themselves the weakest station in town, WVEU 69 in order to assure itself that they'd have an affiliate. 69 is a weak signal nearly everywhere it's used because it's on the extreme edge of the TV band. CBS wasn't really happy, but they had to do what they had to do.
But, in a shocker, Tribune offered up their WGNX 46 for CBS affiliation. Obserbers expected that Tribune was intending on affiliating that station with the about-to-launch WB network to which Tribune would subscribe nearly all of its stations, but this turned out to be a key holdout. The CBS affiliation would land there.
CBS tried to get out from buying WVEU, but a deal was a deal and it was too late. CBS ended up having to buy the station, and would operate it as a station in the UPN network under a new callsign of WUPA. The WB affilation eventually landed at Fox's WATL 36. So, CBS ended up owning a UPN affilate and Fox ended up owning a WB affilate. Strange bedfellows...
Since then...
-New World got bought out by Fox... and FCC rules at the time prohibited two stations by the same owner in the same city, so WATL was sold to a group led by Quincy Jones. - Tribune decided that they'd rather own the WB affilate than a CBS affilate, so they sold WGNX 46 to Meridith Broadcasting, who renamed the station WGCL. Tribune was then free to buy up WATL 36 and did so. - CBS would end up having to operate WUPA 69 until the CBS-Viacom merger happened in 1999, at which point the station was quietly passed within the company which made the station a UPN O&O.
The "New World Order" event set off a domino reaction among the other networks as well. CBS looked to secure itself a future in many markets by signing a long term deal with the Group W stations, which turned several NBC affiliates into CBS affilates a few years ahead of the Westinghouse-CBS merger. ABC and Hearst renewed their affilations in a long term deal to assure they'd still be together.
Now, the intersting thing for modern times is that most of these 1994-1995 transactions were 10-year deals that are now about to expire... This most likely won't affect major markets as changes in the ownership caps have allowed networks to buy up their affiliate stations to lock down the affilate-station relationships, but this could lead to some swaps among the smaller market ownership groups in the near future...
BASIC was always the applications and scripting language at Microsoft. For a long time, DOS and the early Windows shipped with a free basic interpreter (sadly, those days are over).
However, all Microsoft Office programs that support Macros do ship with Visual Basic for Applications... with which you can write simple-interface BASIC programs. I've used it on several occasions in cases where I wished I had VB on a machine for a short scrappy program...
VB is a good tool for prototyping and simple stuff where it excels.
VB is a power tool... if you use it correctly you can get a simple program done faster than you could in C. If you use it incorrectly, you end up with a memory hog application that could have been written better in C.
Avoiding Cars...
on
Robocones
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· Score: 4, Insightful
This seems like a great idea for spreading out cones in a lane that's already closed, but what's there to warn drivers that a usually-stationary cone is about to move when there's no orange-vested human picking them up?
If the RIAA stays true to form, they're going to assume that an IP address definitely identifies the culprit, when that is nowhere near true. When do they become legally liable for the false accusations?
When they make a false one. But nobody's been able to show up and claim that yet.
Remember, the burden of proof in a civil case is a whole lot lower than that in a criminal case. "This other situation may have existed." just isn't going to fly without evidence supporting that theory.
None of these lawsuits have gone to trial, but the RIAA has a record of 437 settlements and zero dismissals.
That is to say, nobody's been able to force the RIAA to trial and say that the lawsuit is outright bogus. Some have been sucessful in delay tactics, but everybody facing a trial date settles for their entire life savings rather than risk a bankruptcy-forcing verdict that takes away everything the defendant owns.
The RIAA's lawsuits have thus far been entirely spot-on. They've yet to accuse somebody who "didn't do it". Illegal music filesharers beware... you have a substatial risk of having to pay the piper. Don't do it.
If you place an ad server's domain name in your HOST file as 127.0.0.1... most ads served by their netwrok fail and you instead see a failed image icon.
We should be celebrating laws that require business to do something about user-annoying IT problems. Legislating a need for IT translates to tech jobs that can't be cut... and that's more work for us.
There are solutions to Spam that companies can use, they just keep getting killed because PHB's say they fail the cost-benefit tests. However, when you throw the prospect of a big lawsuit in the face of a PHP, it changes the balance of the scale.
I know of one business that is still running Windows 98 based computers in the office, with very little preventing the employees from wandering on the Internet to wherever they want. Not surprisingly, the employees end up contracting spyware and browser hijackers on a regular basis.
The management has had enough of the IT department having to clean up the infected computers, and has basically ordered them to stop wasting their time on such machines. As a result, one machine's homepage is now perma-set to a porn site. There's a running process that resets it whenever the user attempts to change the home page by any way, but it's using rootkit tactics to shield itself from being uninstalled by anything. The OS is hosed, it needs to be reinstalled.
I just can't wait until the first female employee notices what's happened to this male employee's computer and files the lawsuit. Sometimes, IT spending is just plain mandatory...
E-mail, as we know it today, has got to go. Non-authenticatable sending is a bug, not a feature. For as long as businesses allow incoming SMTP e-mail, their employees will always be exposed to all forms of Spam, including pornographic.
So, if the law basically makes it impossible to run an SMTP-based e-mail system in a business, that could be just the knockout blow it takes for businesses to finally see an incentive on picking a tigher protocol that allows better tracing of senders.
100's the magic number to be sucessful with a so-so series. 75 is a level you can suvive at if you're good, see also Star Trek, Futurama, and a few other big-following shows. Anything less and you're a dead show walking.
Slashdot Mirror
The law flat out says that he CAN SPAM. Say what you want about the guy, he's a big follower of truth in labeling....
Tthe key event is that when every you give your e-mail address to any site on the Internet you usually have the chance to opt in to getting commercial e-mail. Opt in with one of Richter's site, and just like the name of his company implies, you opt in REAL BIG to absolutely anybody who wants to Spam you via him. Oh, the dangers of leaving a pre-checked checkbox still checked when you submit the form.
Once you're caught in Richter's web, the only way out is to send an unsubscribe request email exactly the way that the CAN-SPAM says you should. Sure, responding to the unsubscribe link is a great way to get more spam from unethical spammers... but it's the only way to stop getting spam from a compling-to-the-letter-of-the-law spammer. He's untouchable, he'll plead guilty as charged to being scum... but he's breaking no laws.
SpamCop's free to spread its low opinion about OptInRealBig, but they have to be very careful they keep what they say in opinion territory. If SpamCop's willing to publish nameless acusations that OptInRealBig is sending e-mail to people who didn't really opt in, they'd better be sure those people have their facts straight. Richter's counter is that all these people really did opt in, they just don't remember when they did so. If they'd simply provide their e-mail address, Richter could likely tell them at what site and when they made their mistake of signaling that they were opting in, and if they've just send a proper e-mail to his unsubscribe address, he'll gladly unsubscribe them. But since they won't disclose their address, he can't do much for them.
The bit-counting scheme would rank you as being seven-bits away from most other colleges rather than eight-bits... because you're only off by one being in 129 instead of 128.
We didn't start the fire... it's been always burning since the world's been turning... we didn't start the fire... no, we didn't light it but we tried to fight it...
Here's a better way to figure out how to get an abserdly fast connection rate...
First... broadcast a request for the file (specified by a hash value, just like BitTorrent does it.) to the local subnet. If anybody hears this request and responds with an "I've got it!"... bingo. There's no need to go to the external network. This file is already locally available, so copy the file using a LAN-protocol that assumes insane speeds and little packet loss. If nobody answers, you've wasted less than a kilobyte of local bandwidth and you can move on...
Now, send an HTTPS request for a list of the people known to be making the file available to the main tracker-server. However, there's a little trickery at this stage. Instead of just returning a flat list, the tracker-server notices the "apparent IP address" where the request came from. For those directly connected to the Internet, this is their true IP address... however, for those going through a NAT situation, this is the outwardly-visible IP address that speaks for the true client. The list is sorted by whatever server's apparent IP address most bitwise matches the requester's address. This leads to some interesting situations...
- If there's a server with the same apparent IP address as the client IP address... this means that the content is being offered up within the local network again, just not on the same subnet. There's no reason to involve the NAT any further... we just need to introduce two computers that are behind the the same NAT/Firewall to each other. Again, a local-area transfer protocol gets pulled out.
- Now we start getting to the level where we have to assume things. For example, it's rather safe to assume that a subnet whose IP space is one, two or three bits away from my subnet is most likely to be "somewhat local" to me. Those are the servers that get tested first for connection speed... and you keep going down the list until you have relable connections to enough servers to end up maxing-out your incoming bandwidth. At that point, you'll have your file shortly.
An interesting point is that this will end up detecting most i2-links because there's a cluster of colleges in the 128.x.x.x IP space because those were the first 3-octet ranges handed out and the colleges who were the first in line to get those were also the ones who were first to sign up for internet2. So, just by giving preference to those servers who are within the same first-eight-bits of IP space as you, you're more likely to find a faster link...
Why does "use of a P2P application" equate with "copyright piracy?" That's like saying "use of an automobile" equates with "running down pedestrians." Just because the app *could* be used for nefarious purposes doesn't mean there aren't a whole lot of really cool *legal* things that can be done with it as well.
Because most P2P applications these days are specializing in identity obsfucation, and being able to withdraw the sharing as quickly as possible.
To warp your car analogy... it's like GM putting out cars with license-plate-blockers and pumps to spray blood-cleanup chemicals so that when cars are used illegally, it's easier to cover up the crime.
There aren't very many technical developments left to do in P2P in terms of efficient data-moving. The challenge is now a social one... convincing people that they want to be the content-pushers. And really, in the consumer world, it'd be highly useful ISPs would mirror popular legal-to-download content locally and in a way such that when a consumer wants to download that content, the user (or at least their computer's download client) realizes that it's best to go to the local copy on their own network rather than out to the general Internet.
Accessing something being shared on the same switch in your dorm is much much much faster than anything i2 can ever dream of...
Really, all i2Hub really just needs to do is post a list of mirrors of useful for-public-distribution content Linux ISOs, or game patches vendors want help in distributing... so that students realize when there is already a local-to-them mirror, and realize that I2 bandwidth is more plentiful than Internet bandwidth on a college campus. If people would just download from the most efficient location when a massive file is being distributed, and universities were willing to tolerate such legally-run mirrors sprining up on their campus... it'd be a win-win for all involved.
The key is to keep the copyright bears away by limiting the admission of new files into this scheme to those whose publishers want them to be be there.
Or just a proof that given time, bandwidth usage will fill to whatever pipe it's given no matter how fat a pipe you supply. Afterall, as our hard drives got bigger, so did the programs we were given to store on them...
This is purely a social networking system rather than a technical one. If I'm on an i2-enabled conenction, and you're on an i2-enabled connection, then any direct connection between me and you over any protocol is going to route over an i2 bandwidth link rather than going out over the open Internet link between our two sites...
Really, this is like when the Starr Report against then-president Clinton, and all sorts of ISPs who don't do content mirroring did a mirror for that document, since it was long and going to be frequenly downloaded that day. By keeping that traffic local on their own network, their outgoing Internet line was freed up for other traffic.
Knowing who is closer to your network-wise, which isn't aways the shortest physical difference or lowest number of network hops, but the one who has the most available bandwidth on the path that leads from you to them and back, when given a choice between mirrors is always very useful.
So, really, i2hub's goal is to just point out where useful content is on i2 rather than change any routing tables...
From the i2hub site...
:)
We are all from universities, so it's obvious that this service is for educational purposes only.
Yeah... right. And I'm sure that NCAA sporting events such as College Football and March Madness are for educational rather than commerical gain too.
That's kinda interesting because a bit ago in the Atlanta market, CBS's local affiliate was bought out by UPN, therefore pushing CBS into the UHF range (not that it matters for cable, but for over-the-air it was quite a shock).
At least I think that's the way it happened. Perhaps it was FOX now that I think about it.
No... Atlanta was one of the cites affected by the "New World Order" situation in 1994.
The New World Station group, which for a long time was an operator of mostly CBS affiliates had their contract with CBS up for renewal, and shocked the world by jumping to Fox on all of its stations. (The station group would later be sold to Fox, making all of the stations network O&Os, but that would come later.) In Atlanta, that meant Fox moved from an O&O station in the form of WATL 36, to the former CBS affiliate at WAGA 5... while Fox still held control of WATL making it unavailable to CBS.
All of the VHF channels were spoken for, and CBS found itself without a home. Desperate to secure an affiliate, CBS was forced into buying themselves the weakest station in town, WVEU 69 in order to assure itself that they'd have an affiliate. 69 is a weak signal nearly everywhere it's used because it's on the extreme edge of the TV band. CBS wasn't really happy, but they had to do what they had to do.
But, in a shocker, Tribune offered up their WGNX 46 for CBS affiliation. Obserbers expected that Tribune was intending on affiliating that station with the about-to-launch WB network to which Tribune would subscribe nearly all of its stations, but this turned out to be a key holdout. The CBS affiliation would land there.
CBS tried to get out from buying WVEU, but a deal was a deal and it was too late. CBS ended up having to buy the station, and would operate it as a station in the UPN network under a new callsign of WUPA. The WB affilation eventually landed at Fox's WATL 36. So, CBS ended up owning a UPN affilate and Fox ended up owning a WB affilate. Strange bedfellows...
Since then...
-New World got bought out by Fox... and FCC rules at the time prohibited two stations by the same owner in the same city, so WATL was sold to a group led by Quincy Jones.
- Tribune decided that they'd rather own the WB affilate than a CBS affilate, so they sold WGNX 46 to Meridith Broadcasting, who renamed the station WGCL. Tribune was then free to buy up WATL 36 and did so.
- CBS would end up having to operate WUPA 69 until the CBS-Viacom merger happened in 1999, at which point the station was quietly passed within the company which made the station a UPN O&O.
The "New World Order" event set off a domino reaction among the other networks as well. CBS looked to secure itself a future in many markets by signing a long term deal with the Group W stations, which turned several NBC affiliates into CBS affilates a few years ahead of the Westinghouse-CBS merger. ABC and Hearst renewed their affilations in a long term deal to assure they'd still be together.
Now, the intersting thing for modern times is that most of these 1994-1995 transactions were 10-year deals that are now about to expire... This most likely won't affect major markets as changes in the ownership caps have allowed networks to buy up their affiliate stations to lock down the affilate-station relationships, but this could lead to some swaps among the smaller market ownership groups in the near future...
BASIC was always the applications and scripting language at Microsoft. For a long time, DOS and the early Windows shipped with a free basic interpreter (sadly, those days are over).
However, all Microsoft Office programs that support Macros do ship with Visual Basic for Applications... with which you can write simple-interface BASIC programs. I've used it on several occasions in cases where I wished I had VB on a machine for a short scrappy program...
VB is a good tool for prototyping and simple stuff where it excels.
VB is a power tool... if you use it correctly you can get a simple program done faster than you could in C. If you use it incorrectly, you end up with a memory hog application that could have been written better in C.
This seems like a great idea for spreading out cones in a lane that's already closed, but what's there to warn drivers that a usually-stationary cone is about to move when there's no orange-vested human picking them up?
Better yet... a Spammer can take his laptop onto the steps of Congress and Spam away...
Letters belong to those who they were sent to... so...
The named person can read-it-and-weep...
There's a massive group with power to execute...
and the rest of the world can gang up too...
Yes, but the be truely friviolous you have to force a trial and lose... which hasn't happened once yet.
there is no way these people can legally fight the RIAA.
You're not supposed to have a way to legally fight when you've actually done it...
If the RIAA stays true to form, they're going to assume that an IP address definitely identifies the culprit, when that is nowhere near true. When do they become legally liable for the false accusations?
When they make a false one. But nobody's been able to show up and claim that yet.
Remember, the burden of proof in a civil case is a whole lot lower than that in a criminal case. "This other situation may have existed." just isn't going to fly without evidence supporting that theory.
None of these lawsuits have gone to trial, but the RIAA has a record of 437 settlements and zero dismissals.
That is to say, nobody's been able to force the RIAA to trial and say that the lawsuit is outright bogus. Some have been sucessful in delay tactics, but everybody facing a trial date settles for their entire life savings rather than risk a bankruptcy-forcing verdict that takes away everything the defendant owns.
The RIAA's lawsuits have thus far been entirely spot-on. They've yet to accuse somebody who "didn't do it". Illegal music filesharers beware... you have a substatial risk of having to pay the piper. Don't do it.
If you place an ad server's domain name in your HOST file as 127.0.0.1... most ads served by their netwrok fail and you instead see a failed image icon.
Futurama just got installed on the Sunday lineup, so they're up to 5-a-week now.
We should be celebrating laws that require business to do something about user-annoying IT problems. Legislating a need for IT translates to tech jobs that can't be cut... and that's more work for us.
There are solutions to Spam that companies can use, they just keep getting killed because PHB's say they fail the cost-benefit tests. However, when you throw the prospect of a big lawsuit in the face of a PHP, it changes the balance of the scale.
I know of one business that is still running Windows 98 based computers in the office, with very little preventing the employees from wandering on the Internet to wherever they want. Not surprisingly, the employees end up contracting spyware and browser hijackers on a regular basis.
The management has had enough of the IT department having to clean up the infected computers, and has basically ordered them to stop wasting their time on such machines. As a result, one machine's homepage is now perma-set to a porn site. There's a running process that resets it whenever the user attempts to change the home page by any way, but it's using rootkit tactics to shield itself from being uninstalled by anything. The OS is hosed, it needs to be reinstalled.
I just can't wait until the first female employee notices what's happened to this male employee's computer and files the lawsuit. Sometimes, IT spending is just plain mandatory...
E-mail, as we know it today, has got to go. Non-authenticatable sending is a bug, not a feature. For as long as businesses allow incoming SMTP e-mail, their employees will always be exposed to all forms of Spam, including pornographic.
So, if the law basically makes it impossible to run an SMTP-based e-mail system in a business, that could be just the knockout blow it takes for businesses to finally see an incentive on picking a tigher protocol that allows better tracing of senders.
100's the magic number to be sucessful with a so-so series. 75 is a level you can suvive at if you're good, see also Star Trek, Futurama, and a few other big-following shows. Anything less and you're a dead show walking.