IP: Usenet junk e-mail could swamp the system Friday

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Usenet junk e-mail could swamp the system Friday


A small group of anti-spammers is threatening to go on strike Friday -- 
an action that could triple the number of Usenet messages and overload
servers.


The "despammers," as they call themselves, are the junk police of Usenet, 
the Internet's collection of thousands of topical newsgroups. Concerned
about the growing volume of junk messages flooding Usenet, the loosely 
affiliated group claims it deletes about 40 percent of all Usenet messages
every day.


But claiming its services have started to foster apathy among users and 
ISPs, the group is going on strike, putting a halt to its search-and-destroy
operations for an indefinite period beginning Friday, according to an 
announcement.


The group wants to force users and ISPs to be more active in stopping the 
proliferation of unsolicited e-mail.


"It has always been our intention that we should be aiming toward putting 
ourselves out of business by making spam cancels unnecessary," said
Dennis McClain-Furmansky, who represents the despammers. "As this doesn't 
appear to be happening on its own, it is becoming necessary to force
the issue. ... The despammers are cleaning up the mess, so where's the 
incentive?" 


If the anti-spammers' estimates are correct, the number of junk messages 
circulating on Usenet is about double the number of legitimate messages. If
true, the stoppage will probably cause a huge increase in the amount of 
spam newsgroup users see, and could cause some Usenet servers to
overload.


Furmansky said some of the despammers might not take part in the strike, 
but expects about 95 percent of spam-hunting activity to cease. 


To delete junk messages, anti-spammers generate "cancel" messages, which 
tell servers to delete a particular piece of junk. On Friday, the
anti-spammers will simply stop sending cancel messages.