Spam, and all marketing, works because of a concept called conversion rate. Multiply this percentage by the cost of running the ad campaign and you find out how much it costs to get a customer.
But unlike direct mail, billboards, television ads, and every other form of marketing, sending twice as much spam typically does not cost even close to twice as much! There's no need to waste time trying to determine demographic information about your victims (er, potential customers) because you can contact everyone for about as cheaply.
Hope that helps. For more information, google "marketing".
Personally, I only accept messages that are 10 MB in size or larger. If you want to email me, please be sure to include a huge block of random text at the end of your email or else I'll never see it.
I don't get any spam using this approach, because the spammers don't send big messages. And if *everyone* ignored small messages, spammers would have to close up shop because they could not afford to send millions of big messages.
(This is a joke. But you could do this at the SMTP level, by automatically replying to any sender who is not on your personal whitelist with the response: "Hey you, if you're real, send me back a HUGE reply!" And the SMTP server could cheerfully delete the last 99% of the first-time oversized email you get. I should write my own anti-spam paper and get mad Slashdot cred. Nah, I'm too lazy.)
The Romans made water a public service by taxing the citizens and building aqueducts. Later Europeans did the same for sewage, then gas, then electricity. It's ridiculous to think of a streetlamp with a coin slot, or a monthly service plan that allows you to sip from Zapulzon Water fountains, but that's because it's just too darn useful (and relatively inexpensive per person) to have those services freely available.
Is the same coming for bandwidth? Absolutely. I predict we'll see the first bandwidth public utilties within 5-10 years (it may already be happening).
Will it ever be free? That seems unlikely. There's still a physical cost. People are willing to donate countless hours of their own time to contribute to a greater good (e.g. Open Source). But how many of us have opened our pocketbooks to give to the EFF? And more importantly, do we have the resources to give away bandwidth? I don't think so.
I saw the show in the Alamo Drafthouse last weekend, and it was fantastic. Afterwards my girlfriend and I spoke with the filmmakers to encourage a wider release and discuss the possibility getting a copy of the film.
IANAL, but the filmmakers recognize there are obvious copyright issues with any sort of distrubution. The film uses the screenplay, music, likeness, and title of the original, so it's doubtful they could "sell it" without extensive negotation with Spielberg et al.
That said, the guys who made this movie (who have all but forgotten about it until the recent resurrection) where flattered beyond belief that hundreds of people gave them a standing ovation. One of the filmmakers offered to make us a copy of the DVD if we sent him blanks & postage. I will ask them what can be done to help out folks like yourself who want to see this great work.
Finally, I must say that this has been my favorite movie of the year! Kudos to the filmmakers.
Slashdot Mirror
Spam, and all marketing, works because of a concept called conversion rate. Multiply this percentage by the cost of running the ad campaign and you find out how much it costs to get a customer.
But unlike direct mail, billboards, television ads, and every other form of marketing, sending twice as much spam typically does not cost even close to twice as much! There's no need to waste time trying to determine demographic information about your victims (er, potential customers) because you can contact everyone for about as cheaply.
Hope that helps. For more information, google "marketing".
Personally, I only accept messages that are 10 MB in size or larger. If you want to email me, please be sure to include a huge block of random text at the end of your email or else I'll never see it.
I don't get any spam using this approach, because the spammers don't send big messages. And if *everyone* ignored small messages, spammers would have to close up shop because they could not afford to send millions of big messages.
(This is a joke. But you could do this at the SMTP level, by automatically replying to any sender who is not on your personal whitelist with the response: "Hey you, if you're real, send me back a HUGE reply!" And the SMTP server could cheerfully delete the last 99% of the first-time oversized email you get. I should write my own anti-spam paper and get mad Slashdot cred. Nah, I'm too lazy.)
The Romans made water a public service by taxing the citizens and building aqueducts. Later Europeans did the same for sewage, then gas, then electricity. It's ridiculous to think of a streetlamp with a coin slot, or a monthly service plan that allows you to sip from Zapulzon Water fountains, but that's because it's just too darn useful (and relatively inexpensive per person) to have those services freely available.
Is the same coming for bandwidth? Absolutely. I predict we'll see the first bandwidth public utilties within 5-10 years (it may already be happening).
Will it ever be free? That seems unlikely. There's still a physical cost. People are willing to donate countless hours of their own time to contribute to a greater good (e.g. Open Source). But how many of us have opened our pocketbooks to
give to the EFF? And more importantly, do we have the resources to give away bandwidth? I don't think so.
I saw the show in the Alamo Drafthouse last weekend, and it was fantastic. Afterwards my girlfriend and I spoke with the filmmakers to encourage a wider release and discuss the possibility getting a copy of the film.
IANAL, but the filmmakers recognize there are obvious copyright issues with any sort of distrubution. The film uses the screenplay, music, likeness, and title of the original, so it's doubtful they could "sell it" without extensive negotation with Spielberg et al.
That said, the guys who made this movie (who have all but forgotten about it until the recent resurrection) where flattered beyond belief that hundreds of people gave them a standing ovation. One of the filmmakers offered to make us a copy of the DVD if we sent him blanks & postage. I will ask them what can be done to help out folks like yourself who want to see this great work.
Finally, I must say that this has been my favorite movie of the year! Kudos to the filmmakers.