[lug] off topic, spam laws

[Rob Riggs]

Or, you could just use the RBL and be done with it...

I agree with your goals. We need to change the economic equation of UCE 
(see Communications of the ACM, Vol 44, No 12; Admediation: New Horizons 
in Effective Email Advertising). However, I do not see how govenment can 
pass effective legislation when more than half the problem exists beyond 
their jurisdiction. At best you have an answer similar to what you 
propose, which results in the problem being shifted from the ISPs and 
end-users to the back-bone providers.

No, the answer is in the RBL, or similar tool. The RBL is very effective 
at blocking spam. It is not affected by international borders the way 
the U.S. Congress is. Based on my experience, I would actually believe 
that it is more effective against international spam.

A two pronged approach (RBL & legislation) may yield more effective 
results in the long term. But this is one area where community action 
has already shown itself to be quite effective

Try the RBL for a bit. I think you'll be surprised by the results.

-Rob

D. Stimits wrote:

>I am considering trying to get some legislation passed that would make
>it a criminal offense to forge headers during commercial advertisement.
>I am also thinking that due to the amount of foreign spam that is
>invading with no means to cut it off (along with accelerating
>quantities), which breaks local spam laws, there should be a means to
>submit these spammers to backbone routers at entry points to the USA and
>have their domains blocked. Basically, the toothless laws need some
>means of adding weight to those who ignore them, and there needs to be
>some form of non-civil recourse against those who purposely forge
>headers intending to use it as a pre-planned evasion of spam laws. The
>Constitition says one of our most fundamental rights is the right to be
>left alone, I do not believe the issue is as trivial or petty as it
>sounds. It is already a right of the state secretary of each state to
>deny all business operations to any outside business which would be
>against the welfare and laws of that state, and I don't think this
>requires any fundamental change in existing laws, but it does require a
>way to gain recourse.
>
>If I were to try to do this, does anyone have any advice on where to
>look up the procedures related to this? Or advice URL's on how to do it
>successfully? What makes a good proposal format?
>
>D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com
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