CAN SPAM Designed To Make Congressmen Look Good - Not Stop Spam

Grok Headline matches for CAN SPAM Designed To Make Congressmen Look Good - Not Stop Spam

California Spam Law: Won't Stop Spam,
Will Make It Harder To Do Business

California Spam Law: Won't Stop Spam,
Will Make It Harder To Do Business 11/03/2003 11:40 PM
I get inundated with more and more spam every day, and it's frustrating as anything. I want it to stop. However, if politicians insist on passing bad legislation in their attempts to stop spam, that's not going to do any good. I've already complained about the new California legislation and it looks like I'm not alone. A guy who runs a consulting firm and writes for Business Week points out why California's anti-spam law won't do a thing about spam, but will make life more difficult for legitimate small businesses. He describes a situation where he did a very targeted mailing for a company. It's probably up to your definition of spam as to whether or not you consider his mailing spam. I tend to draw the line on whether or not the mailing was "bulk" - which it sounds like his was. I believe that if the email is truly targeted and personalized about a potential business relationship, then it's hard to call it spam. The California law disagrees. In fact, the sponsor of the bill claims that any email contact between two companies is not legitimate if it hasn't been initiated under some other form. That's simply ridiculous. As I've said before, plenty of "commercial" websites contact Techdirt every day about the possibility of partnerships or links. Under California's anti-spam law, I could charge them with spam. I recently heard from a major technology magazine, asking if I would add them to my Quicklinks box. Should I sue them for spam? According to the law, I could.

Anti-Spam Technical Alliance Publishes
Industry Recommendations to Help Stop
Spam

Anti-Spam Technical Alliance Publishes
Industry Recommendations to Help Stop
Spam 06/22/2004 09:17 AM
The Anti-Spam Technical Alliance (ASTA), whose participants include Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft Corp., EarthLink and America Online Inc., today unveiled the result of more than a year of close collaboration by presenting a host of detailed best practices and technical recommendations for the entire industry in an effort to fight the scourge of spam.

California Spam Law: Won't Stop Spam,
Will Increase Lawsuits

California Spam Law: Won't Stop Spam,
Will Increase Lawsuits 11/14/2003 07:29 PM
I hate spam and would like nothing better than to see an effective anti-spam law put on the books. However, as I've said before, the California anti-spam law is not the right law. Plenty of others seem to agree, and everyone believes that the law won't stand up if tested in court. The problem is what do people do until it's been tested? The other question is who is going to take on this law. Luckily, it won't be the Direct Marketing Association, who I don't trust in the slightest. They say they've burned up all their resources fighting the "Do Not Call" list. At a conference among email marketers, some were suggesting that they should file their own lawsuits under the bill in order to purposely clog the court system with such lawsuits. This seems like typical bad marketing thinking that overburdening a system somehow gets extra attention. The right response is that someone who gets sued for doing something that clearly is not spam is going to have to go to court and get the law overturned. Maybe (and this would be the best) it happens to someone who is not associated with an "email marketing" company, but just someone who sends a perfectly reasonable email and gets hit with a lawsuit.

Spam, spam, spam, spam ... Canada
targets unwanted email (AFP)

Spam, spam, spam, spam ... Canada
targets unwanted email (AFP) 05/12/2004 04:17 AM
AFP - Canada unveiled a new action plan to combat unsolicited commercial e-mail, nicknamed spam, which jams inboxes and clogs Internet traffic worldwide.

Latest Spam Designed Only To Annoy
Spamhaus

Latest Spam Designed Only To Annoy
Spamhaus 12/02/2003 09:51 AM
The spammers have been getting angry lately, because it appears that the work of many anti-spammers is actually somewhat effective. So, instead of focusing on, perhaps, figuring out a way to market legitimate products without pissing off just about everyone, the spammers are spending their time trying to piss off anti-spam organizations. Unfortunately, some of these attacks have worked, and anti-sp am sites have been shut down. The latest trick, though, isn't designed to do much other than to annoy Steve Linford of Spamhaus. A spammer is sending out spam, saying that you've successfully ordered a CD full of child-porn and will be charged $100/month for it. They say that if the order is a mistake, to contact them immediately - and, of course, the address they give is a Spamhaus email. This is one step up from the typical joe job of just sending out spam email with spoofed "from" headers of someone the spammer doesn't like. While those attacks lead the "target" to get bounces and a few angry replies, this version is specifically designed to make people fire back. It's just that they're firing back at the wrong target. Another article about this tactic says that this is a victory of sorts, because it means that the anti-spam groups like Spamhaus are clearly having an impact on the war against spam. If Spamhaus wasn't making life more difficult for spammers, why would they bother attacking them?

Finance Spam Passing Drug Spam While
Porn Spam Is Washed Up

Finance Spam Passing Drug Spam While
Porn Spam Is Washed Up 05/24/2004 05:37 PM
The latest study on spam trends appears to show that financial spam is outpacing pharmaceutical spam - though, honestly, so much of both is coming out that it's really hard to imagine that this matters at all. Meanwhile, it seems that porn spam is increasingly less interesting to spammers as the numbers have been on a noticeable decline for quite some time. No matter what, though, it appears that CAN-SPAM has done absolutely nothing to slow down the amount of spam sent.

Microsoft offers technology designed to
protect inboxes from spam

Microsoft offers technology designed to
protect inboxes from spam 01/05/2004 06:15 AM
AME Info Jan 5 2004 5:36AM ET

Microsoft Offers Technology Designed to
Help Protect Inboxes From Spam

Microsoft Offers Technology Designed to
Help Protect Inboxes From Spam 11/17/2003 11:36 AM
TopHosts.com Nov 17 2003 10:52AM ET

From spam drops to spam spray to spam
stream

From spam drops to spam spray to spam
stream 06/05/2004 07:31 PM
I am now getting 2,000+ spams a day. There are 1,440 minutes in a day The rate of incoming spams is therefore getting close to the interval it takes me to check my email and dispose of a single spam: By the time I'm done checking, more spam has arrived. That is the point at which the spam droplets form a continuous stream. And that is the point at which no interval of my life will ever be spam-free again....

How to stop spam? Don't look to
legislation

How to stop spam? Don't look to
legislation 12/14/2003 09:50 PM
ZDNet Dec 14 2003 9:16PM ET

Stop Forwarding Spam

Stop Forwarding Spam 04/09/2004 04:11 PM
Advice from LJ's technical manager about how to use a local user account to stop forwarding spam and viruses.

Stop Spam by charging to email?

Stop Spam by charging to email? 12/12/2003 12:52 PM

Easiest and Best Way to Stop mailto:
spam?

Easiest and Best Way to Stop mailto:
spam? 11/17/2002 09:46 PM
"We have published our email addresses on our web sites for almost 10 years using simple mailto: or forms. In the past year, the amount of spam has become intolerable. "

New Spam Law Won't Stop Number One
Spammer

New Spam Law Won't Stop Number One
Spammer 12/29/2003 06:52 PM
Alan Ralsky is famous as one of the top spammers around, so the NY Times went to see what he had to say about the new CAN SPAM law. While he says that he's upset at how "one-sided" it is, it won't do anything to stop him from spamming. He claims that he'll go legit with a real opt-out address in emails, but it's tough to believe that, when he claims in the same article that he's become an expert at hiding his identity in how he sends out spam. He also says that he can't stop spamming because there's "too much money" to be made - even if (he claims) it's been getting more expensive lately to keep ahead of all those filters. It's also amusing to see him blame "the internet" for "forcing" him to hide his identity online. Perhaps, if he wasn't annoying people by bombarding them with crap they didn't want, he wouldn't have had to hide himself.

Spam King Ordered to Stop

Spam King Ordered to Stop 01/05/2005 04:44 PM
theWHIR Jan 5 2005 8:11PM GMT

Microsoft Moves To Stop Spam

Microsoft Moves To Stop Spam 05/07/2004 10:43 AM
Xposed May 7 2004 2:16PM GMT

Comcast looks to stop the spam coming
from its network

Comcast looks to stop the spam coming
from its network 05/24/2004 12:19 PM
Infected PCs of Comcast broadband subscribers are one of the largest sources of spam, sending upwards of 800 million e-mails daily. Now Comcast is preparing to fight bac.

Stop al Spam: No reinventemos la rueda,
evolucionemos

Stop al Spam: No reinventemos la rueda,
evolucionemos 05/04/2004 06:44 AM

Mobile scheme aims to stop spam

Mobile scheme aims to stop spam 07/08/2004 10:31 AM
The mobile industry has launched a scheme to give mobile users more control over premium rate texts.

Experts Don't Believe Bill Gates Can
Stop Spam

Experts Don't Believe Bill Gates Can
Stop Spam 04/30/2004 02:47 PM
Earlier this year, Bill Gates made a splash by announcing that he was spending much of his time trying to come up with ways to fight spam. Unfortunately, most of the methods he listed have been tried before without much luck. Also, many people pointed out that some of the reason spam is such a problem is because of Microsoft security problems (which were not among the things Gates was looking to fix). Well, now the experts have weighed in and they pretty much agree with everyone else: Bill Gates won't be able to stop spam. In fact, many seem to think it's fairly amusing that he thinks he can.

"Spam King" Agrees to Stop Spamming For
Now

"Spam King" Agrees to Stop Spamming For
Now 01/05/2005 10:18 PM

Users Increasingly Looking To ISPs To
Stop Spam

Users Increasingly Looking To ISPs To
Stop Spam 06/09/2004 10:35 AM
Just as the news comes out that many ISPs are hesitant to filter spam, Gartner is showing that a small, but growing, number of users are getting fed up with their ISPs inability to stop spam, and would be willing to switch ISPs to get better spam protection. The problem right now, of course, is that it's not easy to get good spam filtering without too many false positives. While users say they want better spam filtering, the false positives can be just as big a problem as getting too much spam. Users are able to set up their own spam filters, of course, but they believe it's their ISPs responsibility. This viewpoint is only going to increase, and users will look to their ISPs to protect them against adware, spyware, phishing, trojans and all other types of attacks as well. ISPs have been taking either an ad hoc or a wait-and-see approach for most of this stuff, but it might make sense for them to start coming up with more comprehensive strategies that really focus on protecting their subscribers - and not just giving lip service to the idea.

Spammers using random words to stop spam

Spammers using random words to stop spam 01/16/2004 10:58 AM
Any administrators worth their salt is going to go after spam on many fronts. As I have stated 2-3 times...

Can Spam--a good first act

Can Spam--a good first act 12/12/2003 11:35 AM
ZDNet Dec 12 2003 10:26AM ET

IBM Unveils Anti-Spam Services to Stop
Spammers

IBM Unveils Anti-Spam Services to Stop
Spammers 03/22/2005 03:39 PM

Cisco's P-Cube aims to stop spam at
source

Cisco's P-Cube aims to stop spam at
source 09/20/2004 12:54 PM
The start-up, soon to be acquired by Cisco, adds feature to help broadband service providers fight "zombie" attacks.

E-mail postage will line pockets, not
stop spam

E-mail postage will line pockets, not
stop spam 02/10/2004 02:53 PM

Bill Gates Trying To Reinvent The Wheel
To Stop Spam

Bill Gates Trying To Reinvent The Wheel
To Stop Spam 01/23/2004 11:00 PM
Now that he's no longer running the business side of Microsoft, Bill Gates has apparently turned his attention to spam. That's right, in his spare time, he's been messing around with a variety of ways to solve the spam problem, though, it sounds like all of his ideas are already being tried elsewhere. I guess that's not all that surprising considering Microsoft's history. What will be more interesting is whether or not he can get any of these methods to really work. The first is using basic sender authentication via a challenge-response solution. His second idea is basically greylisting (making servers slow down emails from unknown senders to make it more difficult/expensive for spammers to send out so many messages), which seems to be getting some more attention these days. His final idea, though, which he seems to have the most faith in, is a money-based plan to charge unknown senders to email you. The idea is that you would set a price for unknown people to email you - but you have the option of waiving that fee if it turns out you really wanted to hear from someone. I've heard of people talking about similar plans, but have never heard of it being implemented.

The Spam Act -- a good start

The Spam Act -- a good start 05/07/2004 05:00 AM
ZDNet Australia May 7 2004 8:53AM GMT

Why spam is good for tech

Why spam is good for tech 08/27/2004 05:47 PM
ZDNet Aug 27 2004 9:46PM GMT

When Software Fails to Stop Spam, It's
Time to Bring In the Detectives

When Software Fails to Stop Spam, It's
Time to Bring In the Detectives 05/31/2004 02:19 AM
The fight against spam has turned from software engineers who try to identify and block spam to private investigators, prosecutors and law enforcement agents.

How to make spam unstoppable

How to make spam unstoppable 02/10/2004 02:47 AM
A researcher has found a way to get past the filters many people use to stop junk mail reaching their inbox.

Make Love Not Spam

Make Love Not Spam 12/19/2004 03:08 PM
About a month or so ago, Lycos Europe started beta testing a screen saver that uses a computer's idle time and spare bandwidth to launch pester requests at blacklisted Spam domains.

Tomorrow's Menu: Spam, Spam, Spam

Tomorrow's Menu: Spam, Spam, Spam 12/11/2003 06:15 AM
Congress overwhelmingly passes a bill to fight the online scourge, but critics say the unwanted e-mail will increase because the law will actually legitimize spam. By Amit Asaravala.

Spam Filters Grab Good With Bad

Spam Filters Grab Good With Bad 01/19/2004 07:20 AM
The growing use of antispam filters that weed out messages containing words commonly used by junk e-mailers is forcing legitimate e-mail senders to choose their language carefully. By Michelle Delio.

Move over spam, make way for "spit"

Move over spam, make way for "spit" 09/24/2004 11:37 PM

Chinese make beautiful spam music

Chinese make beautiful spam music 05/11/2004 10:41 AM
Ode to perlite - wonder material

Article: Move over spam, make way for
"spit" | New Scientist

Article: Move over spam, make way for
"spit" | New Scientist 09/25/2004 09:51 PM

Review: Advanced Spam Manager Attacks
Viruses, Spam For Exchange, Notes

Review: Advanced Spam Manager Attacks
Viruses, Spam For Exchange, Notes 03/27/2005 12:35 PM
Information Week Mar 27 2005 3:25PM GMT
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CAN SPAM Designed To Make Congressmen Look Good - Not Stop Spam

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