[lug] off topic, spam laws - not really

[Riggs, Rob]

It's not in their (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) economic interest to go after
everyone who uses their domain name in a forged "From:" header. Nor is it
their responsibility. Lawyers cost money. That many lawyers would cost a lot
of money.

It can't hurt to forward all spam to the FTC. However, like you, I wonder
whether it's just a black hole.

-Rob


-----Original Message-----
From: Ernie Stiltner [mailto:stiltner at indra.com]
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 5:50 AM
To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us
Subject: [lug] off topic, spam laws - not really


                                                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
 
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