[lug] off topic, spam laws - not really

[Ernie Stiltner]

                                                February 11, 2002
 
Two points are worth making about the spam mess -
 
Companies such as hotmail, yahoo are facilitating spam by not cracking down
on illegal use of their names. The identity theft laws should apply.
 
There is a federal law, http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/, Theft Assumption
Deterrance Act, that was passed in 1998 that is supposed to address this
problem.
 
There is a mailbox at the Federal Trade Commision that is supposed to track
spam - uce at ftc.gov.  Send them copies of all your spam. It is probably a black
hole, but if they get enough spam, we may get enough attention that the sick
joke of current spam laws get revised.
 
 Ernie Stiltner
 stiltner at indra.com