Vernon,
You can increase the effectivness of the dollars you spend on prevention
with a small amount of deterrence through law enforcement.
Only if the deterrence is effective, rather than distracting or
otherwise providing a false sense of security.
VS> Yes, but the number of distinct streams of spam seen in the Internet
VS> by DCC servers decreased iin the first days after news of the AOL and
VS> Symantec lawsuits broke.
It is easy to have a point effect and difficult to have a strategic
effect.
I believe that legal efforts will have two useful, strategic effects:
1. They will produce some standardized language; that is, we will come
to have terminology that is reasonably precise and is used reasonably
consistently.
2. Marginal spammers will behave more consistently and, perhaps, more
acceptably. Marginal spammers operate within rules, although they might
be irritating.
What will NOT be affected are international spammers and rogue spammers.
My own experience shows this to be a very, very large group.
The negative effect of legislation will probably be excessive
expectations, followed by increased frustration. More seriously there
is likely to be an unexpected and undesireable spill-over to valid
email. This is what usually happens when we pass laws about content but
do not have a clear, strong, simple means of distinguishing "acceptable"
from "unacceptable".
d/
--
Dave Crocker <mailto:dcrocker(_at_)brandenburg(_dot_)com>
Brandenburg InternetWorking <http://www.brandenburg.com>
Sunnyvale, CA USA <tel:+1.408.246.8253>, <fax:+1.866.358.5301>
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