To eliminate spam, arrest 200 people: a proposal [sp]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[In general I like Brad's ideas on spam, but I'm not so sure about this 
one. It's difficult to draft "only 200" legislation. Statutory language 
for critique, anyone? Remember that if it's state law, it must comply 
with Can Spam's partial preemption. --Declan]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Politech] Canada's solution to stopping spam: "new, 
targeted legislation" [sp]
Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 00:58:39 -0700
From: Brad Templeton <btm () templetons com>
Organization: http://www.templetons.com/brad
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
CC: politech () politechbot com
References: <428C0EB7.2010203 () well com>


Declan, tonight I dined with a major spam fighter and he said he
had direct confirmation of the fact that the vast bulk of spam
is sent by a small number of parties, perhaps 200 at most, and
the bulk of that by a core group of about 20.

If this is true, I think a solution is suggested.  Up to now, there
have been bitter fights over spam laws.  Anti-spammers seek laws
that will cover every time of spam they can think of.  Civil liberties
advocates get scared of any law that efficient and the unintended
free speech consequences.  The DMA and other lobbies have their own
agenda.  So we fight, and argue.  Every law has people swearing it is
too weak and others that it is too strong.


So let's put the idea of 200 core spammers to the test.  People should
draft a law that only hits those 200 spammers.  A law very tightly
targetted on activity that everybody agrees is illegal.  Yes, a law that
misses a lot of possible spam which some will decry is "legitimizing"
that spam.   But one that will get those core spammers, get them easily,
and get them hard.  It will fund and demand enforcement.  (These spammers
are already breaking existing laws but nothing funds the enforcement of
them.)

If the thesis that they are doing most of the spam is true, we'll fix
a lot of the spam problem (and scare away those who might consider
entering the upper echelons of spamming.)   If it's not enough the
debate can resume over the best spam techniques.

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