In
this article we discuss what would
need to happen for legislation to
have an impact on spam.
The single most hindering aspect
of a Global Email Law is the matter
of jurisdiction. Where does the
crime take place? One would assume
that the crime takes place from
the location it is sent. That alone
virtually prevents anti spam legislation
from becoming effective. The spammer
need only send from a country that
either does not ratify the law or
does not actively prosecute it.
Remarkably, even though no such
global email laws exist AND nothing
prevents spammers from sending from
countries with no anti-spam laws,
we have still had some major victories
against spammers. However the problem
still remains, we cannot, as of
yet, legally prevent the usage of
email as a marketing media. Obviously
nearly everyone that has an email
address would like this to become
a reality. So, what is it going
to take?
For starters, the initiative is
going to have to be championed by
millions of voters, without the
voiced support of such a large portion
of the voting base, law makers will
continue to fall short of passing
effective anti-spam legislation.
How do you mobilize such a large
group of people into action, wait
I know, lets send them an email…*Just
Kidding* The fact of the matter
is, spammers have been mobilizing
them for us, by increasing in numbers
and annoyance factor, spammers have
been “stirring the pot”.
It is now just a matter of time
before the whole mess boils over.
But to what end, who will ultimately
be held accountable for the spam
they send? In this spam victim’s
eyes, it should be everyone we can
get our hands on. If we enforce
a law that puts liability on the
ISP that sent the mail, the ISP
that received the mail, and the
Web Site and/or Product owner as
well, I believe there would be far
fewer spam emails in my deleted
items folder.
Currently spammers operate under
such a blanket of anonymity that
finding someone guilty of such crimes
would put “reasonable doubt”
to an extreme test. So the next
item that would need to be addressed
is falsification of internet mail
headers. Although in many states
and countries, this is illegal today,
these stipulations need to be applied
unilaterally so as to not give the
spammers a place to operate from.
Along the lines of mail header forging
is problem of open relay. That is
when a spammer tells another server
to send mail for them in such a
way that the origination appears
to be the server and not the spammer.
There is a variety of laws that
cover this behavior in one way or
another, but to be effective what
needs to happen is that this particular
abuse be spelled out as impersonation.
Another key element missing from
legislation is active prosecution;
the FCC already had guidelines for
prosecuting individuals that have
violated our existing laws. What
we don’t have is directive
and sufficient funding to pursue
individuals that are in violation
of these laws. It takes many formal
complaints, and significant work
on the victims’ part before
a case is brought against a spammer.
A task force would need to be assembled
that specializes in detecting spammers
and actively seeks them out.
Finally the issue of jurisdiction
would need to be resolved. This
one really is a sticky issue and
there are no hard fast solutions.
Ideally network providers should
associate the geographical entry
point with a select group of countries
identified as the responsible legal
entity. In essence, reduce the number
of governing bodies for internet
traffic to a manageable number.
There are a of course a lot of reasons
why buy off on a plan of this nature
would be hard to get. But ultimately,
you could enforce law against the
select number of countries that
did not elect to participate by
simply blocking those networks.
In short, we currently do not have
effective legislation. Until the
community voices their overwhelming
disapproval for this short coming,
you can expect spam emails to continue
to increase in number. Unless you
want your email to go the way of
8 track tapes, it would be sensible
to voice your concerns to your elected
officials. What is more I encourage
you to join CAUCE (www.cauce.org),
an organization dedicated to the
eradication of unsolicited email.
They currently boast over 20,000
volunteers in the war on spam and
they are a good first step in helping
to stamp out this new “Evil
Empire” we call spam. Thank
you and remember, have fun and take
care.
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