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The Cody Blog: Prosecute Spam, Already!

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Prosecute Spam, Already!

Why is it that the government's in our faces for all the wrong things -- from drug regulation to seatbelt enforcement to online gambling -- but they can't crack down on the spam thing. Spam itself is quite a horrible epidemic, but lately I've been getting these porn emails with the most graphic, horrid, sickening pictures embedded in them. And since I use the "preview" function on my Outlook, I end up seeing some of these pictures.

Look, regulators -- do something worthwhile for once. Go after these people for invading my privacy and my home with this garbage! Not that I have a problem with porn, mind you, but it's wrong to have people pushing it into my home.

posted by Cody Willard at 3/02/2005 10:33:00 AM

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's hard to argue with you, Cody, regarding spam being not only an annoyance, but an outright invasion of privacy in many instances.

And you don't even have kids! I have two young ones, and though their computer time is rather limited (i.e., almost nil), they most certainly need to be protected from the porn spam, which indeed has reached epidemic proportions.

That said, I'm not sure that direct regulation is the answer. Why not use a market-based approach. How about a tax of one penny per e-mail sent. Normal users would hardly notice, but the spammers -- now faced with zero variable costs -- would be hard hit. They would then internalize the externalities they have created. (External costs include the need for unnecessary additional bandwidth, the cost of spam-filtering software, etc.)

For now, I suggest Postini software. Our tech guys installed it last year, and it works like a charm!

3/02/2005 11:19:00 AM  
Blogger Cody Willard said...

Great question, Jeff. But I wouldn't call a "tax" a market based solution. If the people who sell me connectivity services want to charge me for an email, that's one thing. But the last thing I want is for the government to come in and make me pay a tax as a result of my rights being violated by spammers.

They need to just punish the wrongdoers. Big stiff penalties and/or jailtime. You violate rights, you're supposed to be punished in this country. Right? Isn't that the idea?

Please NO MORE TAXES and barriers to communication, which is what an email tax would amount to.

3/02/2005 11:47:00 AM  
Blogger Cody Willard said...

Fair point on the semantics, Jeff.

My main concern is that I don't want any more unnecessary incumberences between commmunications.

And I totally disagree that it's debate-able that sending nasty (and I do mean, N-A-S-T-Y!) unsoliticited in any way shape or form into my home is a right.

People should not and do not have the right to target me or enter my property (and that includes my computer screens) without my permission and/or without any association with me.

3/02/2005 12:53:00 PM  

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