spammers will move offshore?

[Barry Shein <bzs () world std com>]

Where did this dopey "spammers will just move offshore" idea come
from?

The legal term is "agency", hire someone to do something illegal to
promote your US business and you're in trouble.

Assuming the point of sending spam to US addresses is to sell some
product in the US, which means you have a business presence in the US,
which means you're subject to US laws. etc.

Besides there are a million cooperating treaties between major nations
and, etc...

Do people really believe you can open a mail order crack house in
the UK and sell to US customers...???

Besides, that's making the best the enemy of the good, it's not like
spamming is some multibillion dollar biz that's going to open glass
and steel skyscraper complexes in Afgahnistan.

It's the same pimply sociopaths who smurf, junk fax (do you find
yourself getting lots of offshore junk faxes???), etc.

Make it illegal in the US, assume they'll make it illegal in other
countries which don't want to see their internet access disrupted
because they're rogue countries and blocked or severely whitelisted.

It's a heckuva lot more promising than whining that spammers might
launch their own space stations to spam from.

This sort of int'l legal stuff is hardly unique to spam or even the
internet.

Cripes, as it stands you can't even stop that schmuck in Georgia who
has been mass spamming copier toner supplies for years. You can't
touch him (obviously, he keeps doing it and putting his name and 800
number in the spam.)

He ain't going to Libya to operate his toner business any time
soon...trust me on this. But why bother he's perfectly safe in
Georgia.

It's just like the junk fax stuff, just make it illegal and no one
will hire the spammers except for a few miscreants who can be dealt
with.

And spammers won't be able to incorporate (limit liability), open bank
accounts, solicit investment money, get loans, business licenses,
etc. You can't do those kinds of thing for illegal activities.

-- 
        -Barry Shein

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