Re: [Asrg] Re: Anti-spam laws do work, FYI. There's proof.

[Barry Shein <bzs at world.std.com>]

On July 29, 2004 at 11:36 david at vex.net (David Maxwell) wrote:
 > "Reputation systems don't stop spam because of forgery[%]; anti-forgery
 > systems don't stop spam without a reputation system.  But put the two
 > together and I can see it making a dent."

All this is nice fun and games social engineering of dubious value.

But what causes the spam problem we see is the massive and illegal
hijacking of resources.

At any given moment probably millions of PCs are hijacked.

We've seen the same spam spewed at us from over 1500 computers
simultaneously, and more than once.

That's why 100M internet users are so plagued by spam, not for all
these other reasons.

It's a cycle I've dealt with here for many years now.

People see spam and their first reaction is that it's somehow
personally directed, why are they sending me child porn ads, do they
think I'm a pedophile? Why do they think I'm a pedophile? Did I get on
a list somewhere? How?

Then they start to get it that the stuff is (usually) firehosed at
lots of people for no specific reason so don't take it so personally.

Then they begin seeing it in terms of stuff I want versus stuff I
don't want, which is admittedly much healthier but still only a small
and mostly narcissistic aspect of the problem.

Most people, including apparently many on this list, get stuck right
around there, and that's where much of this vehemency arises from
since they see anything which attends to stuff I want vs stuff I don't
want as focusing on the problem.

But eventually you move to the next level and begin to understand that
the actual spam problem isn't really about people's emotional reaction
to what they see in their mailbox.

It's about the ability (of spammers) to deliver mind-boggling amounts
of content to (for argument's sake) hundreds of millions of people for
almost no cost.

That it's annoying, offensive, tiresome, etc is really beside the
point.

If it were hugely entertaining I think we'd still consider it a
problem as its delivered.

If you try to understand the distinction I'm making you might
understand my exasperation with proposals such as SPF, etc.

-- 
        -Barry Shein

Software Tool & Die    | bzs at TheWorld.com           | http://www.TheWorld.com
Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202        | Login: 617-739-WRLD
The World              | Public Access Internet     | Since 1989     *oo*

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