SPAM and archives (Was: Re: [plug] PHP question..)

[Bernd Felsche]

On Thu, Jul 03, 2003 at 11:26:04AM +0800, Onno Benschop wrote:
> On Thu, 2003-07-03 at 10:12, Kimberly Shelt wrote:
> > Given my linmagau account is pretty splashed around the place
> > and the old zip one isn't (or for that matter wasn't) it is an
> > interesting thing.. and proves to me a good admin, who has a good
> > hand on spam assassin et al, can really be a blessing :)
> 
> On Thu, 2003-07-03 at 10:30, Craig Ringer wrote: 
> > No point in my worrying about spam-collecting behaviour now, I already 
> > get 40+ spam a day. Mozilla spam filtering rocks.
> 
> Both these messages suggest that the solution is for me to filter SPAM.
> While that requires even more of my resources apart from the stolen
> bandwidth, I must very strongly disagree with these sentiments.
> 
> The solution is to stop SPAM in the first place.

Agreed. But do you stop being mugged by hiding in the wardrobe at
night?

It is not for law-abiding, reasonable people to be forced to *hide*
because _criminals_ are running around, waiting to do nasty things
to them as soon as they pop their heads above the parapet.

> Making their job harder is one way of making it less effective.

Having spamming recognized as the crime that it is and policing it
accordingly will dissuade a great many. Businesses are losing
millions in handling spam every day. That means governments are
losing out on revenue.

Unfortunately, it's not even illegal for telemarketers to waste
hours of your time every day; simply because they have your phone
number. Only the cost of phone calls dissuades them from doing so.

> I realise that I can simply not contribute anymore, or even unsubscribe,
> but if I do that, I might as well just give up altogether.

The _greed_ of spammers means that they're blind to the great evil
that they do to society. 

It has to be recgnized that email addresses that appear on public
lists are not an invitation to receive junk mail. The email address
appears for one purpose: to provide a method of contact for personal
correspondence between individuals.

As long as that isn't codified in criminal law in most countries,
spammers will keep spamming because any penalties they see are not a
deterrent.

-- 
/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
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