End Spam by criminalizing the purchase of their products?

[:) Smiley]

E-mail spam happens because they only need something like 1 in 100,000 emails to lead to a sale to break even.

So, rather than the endless war on the supply side, why not hit the demand side by cracking down on those 2,500 people in the US who actually buy those products?

Pass a federal law imposing, say, a $500 fine for buying a product or service sold in an unsolicited email. Then conduct a couple of sting operations and publicize it. That ought to cut demand down to zero.

[Sava]

punish the spammers, not the dopes that buy their products/services...

[faded glory]

ya theres these things called a delete button and filter. There pretty much idiot proof. Try using them


ya punish a form of legitamate advertising

[Sava]

ya punish a form of legitamate advertising

let's make it illegitimate...

Spammers are *******s... they should be shot

[Spiffor]

Why not make spam illegal ? In Europe, we have tons of legislations about it, and a European spam mail can easily be shut down if it doesn't follow the law closely.
Useless to say, about all of the spam I get originates in the US (or at least targets me with products for the American market).

[faded glory]

I dont get it. Whats the big fvckin deal? People make money off it? What do you want? Them to charge spammers for each email they send!? Email service is still free.

You know that slope is very slippery. Ide rather put up with spam then pay for email.

[The Templar]

Better yet, make "spammer" an affirmative defense for assault. Thus, if you beat the crap out of a spammer (and can show that the victim is indeed a spammer) there are no criminal charges or civil actions.

[faded glory]

Fine, but if you try to beat up a spammer and fail, then he whips your ass and smashes your face in with a porcelin lamp and then nails it to an anthill.


Its your own fault :P

[:) Smiley]

Making spam illegal is useless as it crosses international borders. Taxing email is unpopular.

Faded glory, people do make money off of it, but it costs the economy a lot more in wasted bandwidth and such than they make. If you ever wanted an example of abusive externalization of costs, this is it.

Fact is, spammers are merely reacting to the presence of a certain market. Take away that market, and problem solved. The only people adversely affected are those 2,500 Americans that order penis enlargement pills online, and frankly I could care less about what happens to them.

[Spiffor]

I think it should be illegal for spammers to defend themselves when being beaten into bloody pulp.

[Sava]

FG you have some very weird assumptions about what getting rid of spam would be like. Read Spiffor's post. Spam can be eliminated and everything else can remain the same. Even with filters and blocking and stuff, I still get 5-6 emails a day from spammers. It's annoying, it takes up space on my hotmail account, and it takes time to get rid of these ****ers. Spammers spread virii, worms, and other damaging pieces of code. They expose children to obscene material and represent the worst kinds of people in a capitalist system. Spammers are no different than street hoods out to screw people in effort to make money.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Smiley
Faded glory, people do make money off of it, but it costs the economy a lot more in wasted bandwidth and such than they make. If you ever wanted an example of abusive externalization of costs, this is it.

This is the main reason for the world to unite against spammers. They are bloody parasites, draining limited resources for their own gain.

They don't need to pay for their own crap, everybody else does. That's why spam should be illegal, just like junk faxes are.

[Asmodean]

Originally posted by Spiffor
I think it should be illegal for spammers to defend themselves when being beaten into bloody pulp.

Hey guys: I bet that faded glory is a spammer. Why else would he defend them so much.

Asmodean

[Dr Strangelove]

How about forming a service that tracks the spammer's address, then publishes that address as an add-on to the spam message? Eventually someone will take care of Mr. Spammer.

[GePap]

Well, the Soylent Green solution would be to convince Hormel to make Spam out of known Spammers..