As Anonymous Coward says you cannot count on politicians. So while what is say is true and an easy to implement solution, it will not be done. Too much in the way of campaign contributions at stake. However if we give CCC a financial incentive to combat spammers it might work. Something like if they cooperate they can keep double or triple their usual fee for "trouble" they have to go through to collect this tax. So now both the CCC and government have reasons to go after spammers and their customers.
You are right you cannot rely on politicians. But my idea is to give them an unique situation, a chance to have a popular tax. This might count for something.
Ok, spam is bad. Why do we have spam because someone profits. As long as there is profit there is spam. Spammers will work out ways around these clever schemes as we see can with all those zombie relays. The way to get the spammer is where he is vulnerable, like a kidnapper, he has to show up to collect his money. Place a tax of 99% on all spam transactions payable by the seller. How to know if a given transaction is a spam transaction, require the buyer to report all spam buys. If they don't report it they are liable for the tax plus penalty. Reward the first reporter of a spam buy with 5% of the amount collected from unreported buyers. This is fighting greed with greed. The government gets a nice new revnue stream for awhile. Want makes this easy is that most of these transactions need credit cards or other things which will leave a paper trail. This puts all the hassle on the buyer and the seller. Might be a good idea to allow credit card companies to charge extra fees on both ends to make up for their added burden.
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As Anonymous Coward says you cannot count on politicians. So while what is say is true and an easy to implement solution, it will not be done. Too much in the way of campaign contributions at stake. However if we give CCC a financial incentive to combat spammers it might work. Something like if they cooperate they can keep double or triple their usual fee for "trouble" they have to go through to collect this tax. So now both the CCC and government have reasons to go after spammers and their customers.
You are right you cannot rely on politicians. But my idea is to give them an unique situation, a chance to have a popular tax. This might count for something.
Ok, spam is bad. Why do we have spam because someone profits. As long as there is profit there is spam. Spammers will work out ways around these clever schemes as we see can with all those zombie relays. The way to get the spammer is where he is vulnerable, like a kidnapper, he has to show up to collect his money. Place a tax of 99% on all spam transactions payable by the seller. How to know if a given transaction is a spam transaction, require the buyer to report all spam buys. If they don't report it they are liable for the tax plus penalty. Reward the first reporter of a spam buy with 5% of the amount collected from unreported buyers. This is fighting greed with greed. The government gets a nice new revnue stream for awhile. Want makes this easy is that most of these transactions need credit cards or other things which will leave a paper trail. This puts all the hassle on the buyer and the seller. Might be a good idea to allow credit card companies to charge extra fees on both ends to make up for their added burden.
Infantile, cumbersome and boring.