Economics of "Wanted" and "Unwanted" Messages

[Declan McCullagh]

On Sun, May 18, 2003 at 07:45:44PM -0400, Steve Furlong wrote:
> 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 less aggressive vein, I've been waiting for a spamactivists.com
site to emarge with "Picket Spammers at Their Homes" days, calls to
family members, spammer creditors, etc. No harassment, just conveying
factual information in a non-threatening manner.

For verification purposes, most spam blacklists have records of past
spamming activity (SpamCop keeps a year or so). That shifts the trust
problem, but it doesn't seem insoluble.

-Declan