Reading this story on Yahoo about the large ISP’s going after hundreds of spammers actually for once makes you want to like Microsoft, AOL, and Yahoo. With the new Can Spam law in effect, these companies are taking advantage of the situation to go after the scums of the internet. Hooray for these companies, they get my vote of support (for now.)
” The companies said the defendants include some of the nation’s most notorious large-scale spammers. The Internet providers � collectively with tens of millions of subscribers � said they shared information, resources and investigative information to identify some of the defendants.”
Oh and in case anyone wants to kick these guys in the shin if discovered at the grocery store or something:
” Among the named defendants were Davis Wolfgang Hawke of Medfield, Mass., whom AOL lawyers said also is known as Dave Bridger, and Braden Bournival of Manchester, N.H. They and others were accused of sending millions of e-mails offering weight loss supplements, handheld devices called “personal lie detectors” and other products.”
I’d love to see these guys in the stocks. Now there’s an idea. Let go medievil on their asses. :-)
What do you think of Bill Gates’ plan to charge the spammer? The idea is that email is free unless it is rejected – in which case, the sender gets charged. I like the idea, but others fear it is just a way for the ISPs to stuff their coffers.
What’s wrong with the ISP stuffing their coffers? As long as they share their savings by giving us better service, better bandwidth, and/or more options, I’m all for it. I think it’d be a good idea, but unfortunately it would likely be very hard to implement and enforce. Email is a global communication form, and would require a global effort in order for the idea to work effectively.
The internet is a collective thing, I wonder if the sick and tired community could ever get anything together to stop spam.
I think the basis of Gates idea is quite cool but I think the charges should go to the user as do you Matt, it’s just the recording and implementation is the hardest thing.
We could however throw the offending miscreants in a dungeon and leave them to rot, just throwing them food every now and again.
Oh hell, getting all medievil again. :-)