Re: Microsoft wins against spammer

From: Jim Watt (jimwatt_at_aol.no_way)
Date: 08/12/05 

Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 02:53:43 +0200

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 23:39:47 +0100, Steve Welsh <sjw@stevew.net>
wrote:

>Jim,
>
>On topic - can you give me one good reason why the FTC in the States
>should not fine Microsoft ALL of the money they have won from spammers,
>seeing as how is is THEIR *** PRODUCT that caused the majority of the
>spam problem as it exists now. And while they are about it, they might
>just double it as a punitive fine ;)

Arguing with anonymous people is really a waste of time
as one never knows how many of them are the same idiot

However

The assertion that Microsoft 'caused' the spam problem with
'their product' is nonsense. Which product do you mean?

Windows? Outlook? Exchange?

Spam is caused by greed, failings in the design of the present
Email system which does not allow authentication of the sender and
by ISP's who allow spamming.

None of these are down to Microsoft

Mac and Linux users are not so blessed that they never receive
unsolicited emails and If indeed Linux is so good, no doubt the
spammers are using that to originate their emails.

I do like the idea of clause in the user agreement for Pegaus mail
which seeks to prevent it being used by spammers.

Turning to the FTC, their jurisdiction is limited to the United States
and Spam is a worldwide problem - there is no reason why
they should benefit from what goes on outside the US and
the only reason MS has obtained court orders for damages
is because they have taken an initiative and sunk their money
into stopping the spammers by application of the law.

This is good news for everyone else.

You could do the same if you had a deep enough pocket,
and although you haven't the FTC has.

Having said that they do take action against scum

For example:

http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/12/031219stipdomainreg.pdf

Where they obtained a court order against an outfit called
'Domain Registry of America Inc' who were engaged in
sharp practices of domaine slamming.

When the above scammed one of my clients we managed
to get a refund by quoting the above and persisting.

There is no system for keeping pseudo anonymous idiots out of
newsgroups, except they eventually get bored 

--
Jim Watt          
http://www.gibnet.com