Theodore Ts'o <tytso(_at_)mit(_dot_)edu> writes:
On Wed, Aug 14, 2002 at 03:19:34PM -0400, stanislav shalunov wrote:
P.S. If people complained more to the ISPs it would help.
http://www.internet2.edu/~shalunov/uce/reporting-spam.html
This is a myth. Reporting to ISP's can't possibly help, since so many
spammers use (as you yourself point out in your web page) throwaway
$20 accounts. By the time you complain, and the ISP closes the
account, the spammer has moved on to some other account.
I didn't claim that complaining about spam solves the problem.
Clearly it doesn't -- spam gets reported today and we all still get
spam. It does help: it helps cut off ways for the spammers to benefit
from spam (this only works against spammers that have something to
sell directly, but they send a sizable franction of all spam) on one
hand and it encourages ISPs to make it harder to spam from their
networks (like charging a clean-up fee) on the other hand.
In addition, processing spam complaints is a cost. It is a cost to be
born by those who willingly or unwillingly abet the spammer. It helps
shift the economic balance -- if only to a small extent.
If no-one ever complained about spam, the problem would be worse than
it is today.
--
Stanislav Shalunov http://www.internet2.edu/~shalunov/
Religion is the opium of them asses. --Karlm Arx