-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] Canada's solution to stopping spam: "new, targeted legislation" [sp]
Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 00:58:39 -0700
From: Brad Templeton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: http://www.templetons.com/brad
To: Declan McCullagh <[email protected]>
CC: [email protected]
References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Declan, tonight I dined with a major spam fighter and he said he had direct confirmation of the fact that the vast bulk of spam is sent by a small number of parties, perhaps 200 at most, and the bulk of that by a core group of about 20.
If this is true, I think a solution is suggested. Up to now, there have been bitter fights over spam laws. Anti-spammers seek laws that will cover every time of spam they can think of. Civil liberties advocates get scared of any law that efficient and the unintended free speech consequences. The DMA and other lobbies have their own agenda. So we fight, and argue. Every law has people swearing it is too weak and others that it is too strong.
So let's put the idea of 200 core spammers to the test. People should draft a law that only hits those 200 spammers. A law very tightly targetted on activity that everybody agrees is illegal. Yes, a law that misses a lot of possible spam which some will decry is "legitimizing" that spam. But one that will get those core spammers, get them easily, and get them hard. It will fund and demand enforcement. (These spammers are already breaking existing laws but nothing funds the enforcement of them.)
If the thesis that they are doing most of the spam is true, we'll fix a lot of the spam problem (and scare away those who might consider entering the upper echelons of spamming.) If it's not enough the debate can resume over the best spam techniques.
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