On Sunday, May 18, 2003, at 04:45 PM, Steve Furlong wrote:
On Thursday 15 May 2003 03:21, Tim May wrote: (Comparison between celebrity stalking and spamming)
...Their are three main approaches for dealing with the problem of unwanted attention towards celebrities:
1. Pass laws...
2. ...screen ...
3. Reclusiveness.
4. Make stalking, or spamming, physically unrewarding. Celebrities can have their bodyguards beat up intruders. In the case of spammers, the more talented network hackers might be able to back-trace the messages and eventually get a physical address. A usenet group or overseas web site could carry lists of these addresses. Ordinary citizens living near the spammers could then convey the complaints of the community to the spammer, with ball-peen hammer or shotgun. If the citizens exercized some caution and didn't repeat themselves, the cops wouldn't have much to go on. Heck, the cops probably wouldn't even investigate very hard; they receive spam, too. The only drawback I see to this plan is the problem of false accusations.
In a timing irony, today's WSJ has a front-page article on "anti-spammer vigilantes" who go after spammers. I didn't have time to read the article, just glance at the first couple of paragraphs. --Tim May "A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked ...A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system." -- Grady Booch