Keith Moore <moore(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu> writes:
I think among other things it is time that we started treating
stealing other people's open relays for purposes of forwarding
commercial email as what it probably is -- a felony. That won't help,
though, so long as no one attempts to prosecute it.
nor will it help if open relays are not a significant part of the problem.
most of the spam I see these days (at least, the spam that I take the
trouble to analyze) doesn't seem to be going through open relays.
Ah, but the stuff coming directly from the source is actually not so
big a problem. The block lists get such spam very fast, and I don't
see much of it at all -- perhaps one message every couple of days. You
can track such spam down pretty quickly and either get it shut down or
blacklist the host/network if you can't.
The stuff that leaks through, of which I see more and more every day,
is coming through the people playing dirty tricks. (They inevitably
play such tricks because the black hole lists work pretty well.)
However, I agree with you, merely prosecuting the people hijacking
other people's resources will not be sufficient. It might be nice to
see a few spammers go to jail, though, for stealing other people's
computer resources.
--
Perry E. Metzger perry(_at_)piermont(_dot_)com
--
"Ask not what your country can force other people to do for you..."