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by Jeff Key.
Original Post: CAN-SPAM? No, CAN-SPAM can't can spam.
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I simply can't imagine this bill doing having any effect. I read an article today that says MessageLabs estimates that 66% of spam is sent through hijacked computers. This should not be surprising to anyone: Spammers don't follow the rules. Why in the world would they establish and respect opt-out services? The vast majority of spam I get has Paris Hilton, teens girls, my neighbor or dogs in the subject. You're telling me these people will want to run a fair business? It just takes a couple dopes to click through to the sites in the spam to make their campaigns worth it.
Who's going to stop these idiots? How many spammers are there? What is the process of tracking down and prosecuting these people? Mugging is illegal everywhere, but people still do it and the return is apparently worth the risk. The big difference is that the victim, and witnesses in some instances, see the mugger. Not only do we not know who the spammer is, but it's pretty easy for them to cover their tracks. If we can't determine who the bad guys are, how are we going to know which ones are worth the government's time and money to track down?
This can only be stopped with technology. The single biggest problem right now is worrying about the existing email infrastructure, protocols, etc. I say leave it alone -- it's old, there are existing anti-spam tools in place already, and needs it replacing anyway. Microsoft, once the leader in proprietary everything, has been working on the spam problem since the 90's, Gates has recently been quoted as saying. They should put out a solution that works with every OS/application they still support and let other interested parties have the specs. Screw the critics. We've waited long enough for an “open“ solution and what do we have? Nothing but mailboxes full of porn, get-rich-quick schemes, PayPal frauds and trojans.
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