ietf-asrg
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RE: [Asrg] Thoughts so far

2003-03-14 13:02:14
Bringing lawsuits against individual senders of spam is economically unattractive to most lawyers and potential plaintiffs. Litigation is expensive, thousands of suits would need to be brought to have any impact, and even if substantial damages were awarded, collecting the damages from individual spammers would be difficult.

On the other hand, it might well be economical, if appropriate laws were in place, to take civil or criminal action against the vendors of the software that people use to send spam. Of course, merely creating software that can be used for mass mailings is not and should not be illegal (and making it so would surely be unconstitutional). But what potentially could be made illegal is the marketing of software tools for defeating anti-spam technologies. Such a provision would be analogous to the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which is enforceable through both civil and criminal proceedings.

Anti-circumvention legislation designed to prevent the marketing of software for defeating anti-spam technologies could also be challenged on constitutional grounds, but almost surely could be crafted so as to withstand constitutional challenge. While by definition such an approach is not a solution in and of itself, it could be used to strengthen technological strategies against spam.

Doug Phillips
(Vicious Attack Lawyer)


-----Original Message-----
From: Valdis(_dot_)Kletnieks(_at_)vt(_dot_)edu 
[mailto:Valdis(_dot_)Kletnieks(_at_)vt(_dot_)edu]
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 1:54 PM
To: David F. Skoll
Cc: asrg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: [Asrg] Thoughts so far


On Fri, 14 Mar 2003 10:48:08 EST, "David F. Skoll"
<dfs(_at_)roaringpenguin(_dot_)com>  said:
> On Fri, 14 Mar 2003, Jason Hihn wrote:
>
> > > Technology alone won't solve this problem.  Laws with real teeth
> > > are required.
> > > However, I'm not holding my breath.
>
> > It's technology's problem. Tech created it, tech will have to fix
it.
>
> I don't agree.  It's a social and economic problem as much as a
> technological problem.

Don't expect to win on social/economic points unless you have a really
well-bankrolled team of vicious attack lawyers.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/11/223248&mode=nocomment

Executive summary:  Microsoft doesn't like Washington's anti-spam laws.
<< ATT00053.dat >>

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