[mob] Killing ths Internet

[Robbie Honerkamp <robbie@shorty.com>]

While Microsoft, AOL, and other companies work hard to find ways of 
killing the Internet by making email completely useless in their 
attempts to stop spam, the federal government has come up with a plan to 
outdo them all.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=575&u=/nm/20031121/wr_nm/tech_spam_congress_dc_12&printer=1

The bill essentially legalizes spam. Companies can spam you until you 
tell them to stop. Once you tell them to stop, many of these companies 
might sell your (now confirmed) email address to other companies who can 
spam you until you tell them to stop. Repeat this process hundreds of 
times until your inbox is stuffed full and you spend two days out of the 
week emailing 'stop spamming me' notices to companies.

There is no law that will stop spam. Outlaw it in the US and overseas 
spamming companies will have a field day. Unfortunately our elected 
representatives, clueless as usual about technology, have decided to 
make people happy in the (very) short term and pass this bill as a PR 
attempt.

Robbie