Spam Wars - What to do
Dave Farber, one of the original pioneers of the Internet, said in a recent interview in Salon, "Over the last six months the amount of spam has gone up phenomenally. This last virus or worm that started generating huge volumes of e-mail sort of broke the back. It's not too late, but I think it's getting to be close to too late. If you believe in the old atomic scientist's clock, it's five minutes to midnight." |
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And when the clock strikes 12-what happens then? A complete collapse of the whole e-mail system? Will people just abandon their e-mail addresses as the mail servers fill and spill over at ISPs all over the world?
Fighting Back
As the horizon darkens, there are those hauling the first big guns that will soon be in place on a number of fronts around the world. Rather than defend against the assault with filters and blockers, these spam warriors are setting up cannons to answer the next serve launched over the 'Net at them.
Maybe it wasn't heard 'round the world, but one of the first loud volleys was fired in the U.K. Britain established a law that imposed a L5,000 ($8,057) fine for spammers convicted in a magistrates court. If the offending sender loses in a jury trial, the fine would be unlimited, and a prison term could be attached. The law will go into effect December 11.
Italy had preceded England with its own anti-spam law. There the fine can go as high as 90,000 ($101,600) with jail time not to exceed three years.
Here in the U.S., some states have also joined the counterattack. California leads with the toughest legislation. A law was signed by Governor Davis in September that would punish unsolicited commercial e-mail sent or received within the state with fines of up to $1 million per incident. It will take effect January 1. The law, like most other anti-spam legislation, exempts e-mail that is sent to a recipient who has an existing business relationship with the sender. But in that case it requires that the sender include an opt-out message with the mailing.
Washington state has an older law (1998) that's not as severe. Washington will fine an e-mail offender $500 per message for spam with misleading subject lines, fake reply addresses, or hidden transmission routes.
Actually, 36 of the 50 states have active legislation of one sort or another against spam, but as Scott Perry, head of Postini Inc., was quoted in Informationweek.com, "[state legislation] doesn't seem to have affected the spam issue that much."