>> But other than those 4 or 5 billion people, yeah, I'd say >> we'd have the spam problem licked with just a few tough laws that we > could >> bully a few NATO countries into adopting. > > > We've got some serious unwrecking to do, Whil. I'm sure you've met > people in a lot of those countries and discovered that it's not you they > hate ...
Well, maybe not ALL of them. <g> > > I guess I'm the exception then, because it's not happening to me. In any > case, if it did, I would at least have some recourse because it's > illegal for spammers to do that. In theory, yes. You're required to send include the sending fax number as a header on a fax. I've got a stack of faxes where that requirement has conveniently been ignored. Vacations to Cancun, Health Plans for $19/mo, all sorts of things. Yes, I could track each one of them down... do I want to spend 5 or 10 or 20 minutes on each one of these? And then there are the folks who DO include a 'remove' number on the bottom. In print that's barely readable, and that's before the fax machine has a whack at it. So it's a minute out of my day to wait on the phone while the 'service' promises to remove my fax number - "within two weeks".... And then there are the outright scams, the Internet Domain Registration Corp of America, where they purport to be billing you... you know the drill. But the 'remove' phone number on the fax is disconnected or busy or leads you into a voice mail maze. These folks are dishonest, but how much of my day do I want to spend, in order to save a piece of paper once a week? > I'm not saying we can legislate a perfect world. Indeed, our > civilization is already wounded and bleeding by too many laws and too > many lawyers. It's crucially important that underneath the things we do > to repair the damage already wrought is a major attitude change that > gets us back on track with the spirit of liberty, freedom and justice > for all. We can have law that makes sense, serves us, and we can do that > without ten million lawyers or a system that exists only for the > wealthy. This is not a contradiction, it's a challenge. > > This issue, spam, may or may not be the catalyst we need, but something > must be. This particular problem would serve the purpose though, because > it's a manifestation of the same core problem that has begotten our > other great woes: that capitalism has seized control of our democracy. I just remember Dennis Miller's great closing line when the USSR broke apart. "Who would have ever guessed that Communism would fail because there wasn't enough money in it?" Maybe capitalism isn't the best system. But it's better than anything else around. I guess this is wandering OT, though, and I certainly don't want to get into a political debate. I'm not going to change my mind and I doubt I can change anyone else's, and I don't want to spend the time just yapping. <s> OTOH, I would argue that spam isn't going to get fixed until there's a REASON for it. Money is frequently a pretty good motivator. Technical means need a sea change. Whil _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
