[NCLUG] mmmmmmm...spam control

[J. Paul Reed]

On Tue, 19 Feb 2002, bmc wrote:

> I'm not a proponent of Spam in any way shape or form but I am a proponent
> of the ideals that this country was founded on, and Spam, whether good
> bad or otherwise is a form of free speech.

No, it's not.

In fact, it's very expensive speech.

Just ask any ISP who has had to pay administrators to spend time
configuring those (arguably ineffective) real-time blackhole lists or to
cleaning up a mail servers that's been effectively mailbombed by some
spammer (including those that were closed relays, but just happened to be
the recipients of a lot of spam that day).

Or how about ISPs who've had to prematurely get larger transit connections
due in at least some small part to having to carry spam. If you think of a
situation like Australia, every bit starts to count, and trans-Pacific
connections ain't cheap.

If you think about it, the only people paying for the spammers' speech is
you and I in the form of higher ISP costs.

Later,
Paul
    ------------------------------------------------------------------
    J. Paul Reed            preed at sigkill.com || web.sigkill.com/preed
    What's the point in being nuts if you can't have a little fun?
                                   -- John Nash, Jr., A Beautiful Mind