Subject: RE: spam

From: "Michel Py" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 May 2003 10:34:54 -0700

>> S Woodside wrote:
>> Good law could work to curtail spam. Spammers do it because
>> it's profitable. Remove the profit, fine the dickens out of
>> the worst transgressors, and the cost/benefit ratio will
>> sink. Spamming isn't like hacking, there is always a way to
>> trace back to the person who is paying for the spam because
>> they must be able to sell their product. Since you can
>> identify the individuals responsible, you can hold them
>> accountable with the right laws in place.

> Lloyd Wood wrote:
> and this has worked so well with the War on Drugs.

I was about to make a similar comment. In the US teen buy drugs partly
because it's easier to obtain than booze (drug dealers don't check ID to
see if you are 21 or older).

This has worked so well with Napster too. Instead of fighting a
well-known legal entity now they are down hunting individuals and
distributed systems and it has never been easier to download mp3s.

Michel.