E-Mail Providers Slam Spammers

Submitted by cel4145 on March 11, 2004 - 11:20.

I also saw this on a cable news network last night, so it's getting some press. Wired reports that four of the largest email providers, Microsoft, America Online, EarthLink and Yahoo, have filed lawsuits under the Can Span Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) which forbids some of the deceptive practices used by spammers. Good timing for me, since I'm switching my primary email address (I updated my knews member profile). Would be nice if it took a couple of years before it gets as spam laden as my previous one.

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cel4145's picture

more on this

Submitted by cel4145 on March 11, 2004 - 11:59.

From MSNBC

platypus matt's picture

spam

Submitted by platypus matt on March 11, 2004 - 13:33.

I don't have a problem with spam, really. Sure, it's annoying, but no more so than the huge wad of junk mail I get everyday at the post office box, or the flux of calls I get from telemarketers (who still call, though I signed the do-not call list. Loopholes..) I think that unsolicited advertising, or whatever you want to call it, is just a fact of living in a capitalist society. If we were in a communist society, we'd probably be getting besieged by leaflets and pamphlets from the government.

Spam is only annoying because we all end up paying for it. The hidden, robotic spam bots and other foul practices (i.e., virus-spread secret spam bots, spinning spam off foreign servers without their knowledge, etc) are the real evils of the spam business.

However, my biggest fear is that any effort to stop spammers will end up stopping other practices that have made the internet strong.

Classic example: Every time I send out grade reports via email, some of them get bounced by students' spam guards. What a headache...