ietf-asrg
[Top] [All Lists]

RE: [Asrg] 0. General - News Article - Anti-spam laws

2003-08-05 11:44:28
I still strongly believe that a consent-based architecture that lets the owner 
of an email address decide the policies surrounding that email address is the 
only realistic solution.  All this other stuff to me is band-aids on a 
structurally flawed infrastructure.

-----Original Message-----
From: Yakov Shafranovich [mailto:research(_at_)solidmatrix(_dot_)com] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 8:28 AM
To: asrg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: [Asrg] 0. General - News Article - Anti-spam laws


The following CNET News.com article discusses various pros 
and cons of 
anti-spam laws:

http://news.com.com/2010-1071_3-5059822.html

Some quotes:

-------snip-----
The folly of antispam legislation
By William Blundon
August 5, 2003, 4:00 AM PT

"Many of these legislative goals are laudable. However, they 
fail to make 
several key distinctions. Most people have an implicit 
hierarchy of what 
they consider spam. Illegal, fraudulent and misleading e-mail 
is spam. 
E-mail from an unknown source is "spam lite." Unsolicited 
commercial e-mail 
from a respected company may be spam, junk mail or simply 
unwanted but 
acceptable free speech. E-mail from a company with whom the 
consumer has an 
existing commercial relationship can also be considered spam if it is 
simply unwanted or repetitive. These distinctions are highly 
idiosyncratic 
and are not amenable to broad legislation. "

"The economics of the Internet are different from those of telephone 
networks or the postal system and do not bode well for any 
legislative 
campaign. Moving a telemarketing operation offshore is an expensive 
proposition, while direct mail costs increase dramatically when mail 
crosses geographic borders. But it usually costs less to operate a 
sophisticated e-mail marketing program from New Delhi than it 
does from New 
York."

"Some spammers now send more than 100 million e-mails per day 
using servers 
known as "spam cannons." Does it really matter where their 
servers are 
located? Most pending spam legislation is designed for consumer, not 
employee, e-mail. Does it matter to a spammer if he sends 
e-mail to my home 
or office? Will companies force their employees to register 
their corporate 
e-mail addresses on a do-not-spam list? Will the company do 
it for them? 
What if hackers crack the security on a national database of those 
spam-blocked addresses?  Ethical companies will comply with 
any new spam 
legislation. Black or gray spam operations will invest 
whatever it takes to 
stay ahead of the technology curve and beyond the arm of the 
law. As a 
result, the percentage of dishonest e-mail will only increase.

Copyright ¬1995-2003 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
-------snip----- 


_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
Asrg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg






_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
Asrg(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg



<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>