My comments below...
----- Original Message -----
From: Len Conrad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 11:13
Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Getting Spammed to death...
>
> >When it reaches this point (lots of mass spammers each using lots of open
> >relays, modifying message content, etc.), the best solution would be the
> >law.
>
> Oregon's fairly fangy anti-spam law just this week got struck down as
> anti-constitutional.
>
> Any more suggestions? vbg
>
> Len
The other issue about law is that since the Internet is a world-wide system,
enforcement will be as impossible as enforcing "decency" laws... and just as
ambiguous - as I said, one person's spam is another person's legitimate
email.
It is also a fact that technology of this kind becomes widely distributed on
the 'net very quickly so that anyone wishing to send a mailing would be able
to gain access, and over time, the technique would become a defacto standard
of how to do this. The result being that vast numbers of advertisers would
be regularly violating any laws as a matter of course... numbers so vast, in
fact, as to make the laws unenforceable.
Ultimately, then, legislation would fail. I feel very strongly that the only
solution is to improve the technology so that we can protect ourselves
appropriately, and also reduce the market-benefit of spamming. This
fundamentally changes the forces governing this behavior.
If we focus on these two prime issues we can reduce spam to a trickle... not
only because it is difficult (which won't work alone) but because it becomes
cost-ineffective... or to put a different spin on it... more appropriate
email advertising schemes become more cost effective. (go for the carrot,
not the stick.)
Note that the subscription model also opens up possibilities for legitimate
advertising markets where some providers or services may require that you
subscribe automatically to their advertising efforts - where they might sell
access to this system to support their operations... People wanting to go
completely spam-free would be able to do so by paying a premium to services
which do not require these subscriptions, or which have very limited
requirments.
I believe that natural market forces would ultimately lead in this direction
and generate a number of tiers between completely open systems (such as
those already in place), and completely closed systems (using riggorously
protected subscription models.).
In line with this dynamic, the better markets would tend to be the best
protected... so access to them would be more highly restricted and therefore
would require more capital for entry... Advertising through email would
become stratified in the same way other media is now... for example, it
takes only a few hundreds or thousands of dollars to put a television ad in
place with a local cable company for off-prime time shows, but it costs
millions of dollars to put an ad up in a national market during the
superbowl.
This kind of market dynamic tends to be self-reinforcing... so that those
who control subscriptions to high-end services would tend to shun low-end
advertisers. It also puts the users (ultimately) back in control of the
content they receive.
I don't want to come off as an advocate of email advertising in any way...
but I recognize that it is a fact of life... Altering the dynamics of the
environment will go a long way toward making it tollerable - or perhaps even
beneficial.
$0.02
_Pete
Please visit http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html
to be removed from this list.
