ietf
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: spam (fwd) (edit error on previous)

2003-05-26 19:06:16
g'day,

Anthony Atkielski wrote:
...
Telephone systems can also have open relay services
configured, but it is well established that unuathorized
use is toll fraud.

I'm not aware of any similar jurisprudence having been established for the
Internet.

Oh puuleez.

In Canada there is a Criminal Code offense known as something like
"unauthorized access to a computer system" (sorry for not having the
exact term, but it's been a while). A few years ago I helped prosecute a
case of illegal access onto a university machine under this provision,
and during the research phase was told by the RCMP folks I was working
with that having login prompts, warning messages, etc made it easier to
prosecute, but was not a requirement. Basically, it's a crime in Canada
to use somebody else's compute cycles without permission so what we had
to do was document access and attest that it was not authorized, they
then traced phone records to show corresponding use of modems on the
home line at the same time. The RCMP then got a search warrant, picked
up the perpetrators for questioning and searched their machine for
incriminating files. In that case, they pled out, but as Yodo would say
"guilty they were, conviction it was".

The case we prosecuted turned out to be a small group of kids breaking
into compute hosts, but from what I was told I would think you should be
able to use the same provision against spam relayers, since the key
element was the unauthorized use of compute cycles, not what they did
with the cycles. For those willing to invest some time and energy then
this could be a good starting point in that country, and perhaps a
suitable point of departure for various lawmakers looking at what could
be done in their own countries. After all, since we're gathering
analogies, it doesn't matter if I leave the keys in my car, that still
doesn't give you the right to take it for a joyride.

BTW, those who think SPAM is "too cheap to meter" need to look at the
total costs involved in providing services, including cost of staff and
all the hidden opportunity costs. My kids' school pays a part time
sysadmin who in turn makes use of a couple of technically literate
parents to help him with various chores as he's still learning his
craft. We've collectively spent many hours educating him to the issues
and he has spent hours trying to reduce the impact of SPAMers bombarding
the school mail host. I don't have a firm number, but it's a measurable
percentage of the total admin time over this past year, which translates
to other things the school didn't get because they don't have infinite
admin bandwidth. Also, since the school requires a certain amount of
volunteer time from each family (or a corresponding hourly fee) the
school has definitely suffered a loss in other stuff I might have done
for them with the finite amount of time I give them.

Put another way, gas may be cheap or expensive, but it's only one of the
costs involved in operating a motor vehicle...


                        - peterd


-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
    Peter Deutsch                       pdeutsch(_at_)gydig(_dot_)com
    Gydig Software


             "I'm no stranger to sarcasm, Sir..."

                               - Red versus Blue

---------------------------------------------------------------------