SCN: Purposes--and spam.

[J. Johnson]

I have wondered if a useful and highly laudable purpose SCN might follow
would be the fighting of spam.  I don't mean by the usual technical means.
I mean by legal and political means.

Consider that Washington state does have a law that assesses a penalty of
$500 for e-mail messages with false header lines.  There have even been
two or three cases reported in the papers where individuals have
collected.

Now consider how many messages we have coming through here that have false
headers--lots! (Thousands.)  (Did I mention a possible revenue stream?) 

For sure there is some work involved.  Like researching the law, learning
how to layout a case before a judge (small claims courts, very informal),
filing a case, and perhaps even writing letters to the spammers that we
are about to file a hundred or so individual claims and would they like to
negotiate a bulk discount? 

Nor would this work in all cases--there still are those spammers from out
of country.  But there are enough native spammers to keep provide a good
business.

(There's also the research getting the spammer's name and address, but
that is not insolvable.  Just ask them where to send the check.)

There's also possible political action, like lobbying our legislators.
Well, maybe our Articles forbid lobbying, but we could sure _educate_
them.  Or educate our users how to file suits.

SCN would be a good base--perhaps the ideal base--for doing this because: 
first, we have access a large flow of spam, and the technical expertise to
analyze it; second, because the organization can provide the support
for doing this that individuals don't have; and third, because this is not
something most business are inclinded to undertake.  (Or even governmental
agencies.)

And it isn't hard to start.  A start could be just doing some research
about spam and putting up a web site.

So should SCN undertake active legal, political, or other measures to
fight spam? 

=== JJ =============================================================



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