There are several flaws to this argument. First, the assumption is that it's a single guy who makes the iPod. It's not, it's an entire company who pours in a lot of R&D. So it's not exactly like other companies could hire away all that. Second, Apples DOES have a patent on parts of the iPOD and they enforce them AGRESSIVELY. There are other MP3 players, but none with the dial control the iPod has... because APPLE invented it and others couldn't violate the patent to rip it off. Still, they compete elsewhere, coming up with OTHER innovations to compete, as they should!
If Apple couldn't have defended generation I iPod's from identical clones, odds are Apple never would have had anything left to invest in a generation II iPod. And we certainly never would have gotten our Gen 5 iPods.
As Slashbotters, we're often quick to deride patents. And there is certainly a growing case to suppor the "dark-side" of patents. However, we need to remind ourselves of the equal, of not greater, chilling effect of no patents. For many, patents are the only thing which keeps a new invention or idea from being canibalized by the army of companies who do not innovate or contribute new ideas but simply thrive off copying others ideas and make a quick buck. Have you ever had a great idea? If you knew the moment you put in all the effort to make your idea a reality that there would be hundreds of copy-cat vultures ready to take your idea from you and never give you a dime for it, would you really want to put the work into creating it?
I do not dispute there is a negative side to patents. But we can't forget there is also a negative side to allowing copy-cat vultures to remove all economic incentive to innovate. It's a balancing act where finding a middle ground and balance is essential.
You're making this much more complex than it needs to be. Here's the simple approach:
+ Create a spamhole.
+ Since this it won't be a legit SMTP server, nobody but spammers should be using it (especially if they attempt relay).
+ Every time someone attempts to relay through your spamhole, report it to a central internet blacklist.
+ After the central blacklist gets X reports, the ip attempting to sendthrough the spamhole is labeled as a spam host or relay.
+ You never have to let email through the hole, so there is zero risk of getting blacklisted yourself.
In other words, use the spam holes to detect spamhosts rather than to waste their time.
Sure, they can still go about detecting these spamholes and avoiding them. But in the process of doing so, they'll already have gotten that probe host blacklisted. And then they won't know of the server rejected them because they are blacklisted or because it was a spamhole. The spammer simply won't be able to tell.
Easy as pi.
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There are several flaws to this argument. First, the assumption is that it's a single guy who makes the iPod. It's not, it's an entire company who pours in a lot of R&D. So it's not exactly like other companies could hire away all that. Second, Apples DOES have a patent on parts of the iPOD and they enforce them AGRESSIVELY. There are other MP3 players, but none with the dial control the iPod has... because APPLE invented it and others couldn't violate the patent to rip it off. Still, they compete elsewhere, coming up with OTHER innovations to compete, as they should! If Apple couldn't have defended generation I iPod's from identical clones, odds are Apple never would have had anything left to invest in a generation II iPod. And we certainly never would have gotten our Gen 5 iPods.
As Slashbotters, we're often quick to deride patents. And there is certainly a growing case to suppor the "dark-side" of patents. However, we need to remind ourselves of the equal, of not greater, chilling effect of no patents. For many, patents are the only thing which keeps a new invention or idea from being canibalized by the army of companies who do not innovate or contribute new ideas but simply thrive off copying others ideas and make a quick buck. Have you ever had a great idea? If you knew the moment you put in all the effort to make your idea a reality that there would be hundreds of copy-cat vultures ready to take your idea from you and never give you a dime for it, would you really want to put the work into creating it? I do not dispute there is a negative side to patents. But we can't forget there is also a negative side to allowing copy-cat vultures to remove all economic incentive to innovate. It's a balancing act where finding a middle ground and balance is essential.
Until we see spammers getting jailtime, you won't see an end to the practice. Spam is profitable. It's just that simple.
You're making this much more complex than it needs to be. Here's the simple approach: + Create a spamhole. + Since this it won't be a legit SMTP server, nobody but spammers should be using it (especially if they attempt relay). + Every time someone attempts to relay through your spamhole, report it to a central internet blacklist. + After the central blacklist gets X reports, the ip attempting to sendthrough the spamhole is labeled as a spam host or relay. + You never have to let email through the hole, so there is zero risk of getting blacklisted yourself. In other words, use the spam holes to detect spamhosts rather than to waste their time. Sure, they can still go about detecting these spamholes and avoiding them. But in the process of doing so, they'll already have gotten that probe host blacklisted. And then they won't know of the server rejected them because they are blacklisted or because it was a spamhole. The spammer simply won't be able to tell. Easy as pi.