late nite IM ranting

Apr 10, 2004 05:13

My Fatheer thinks that the ISP companies should be sued for spam and viruses, that it is their job to make sure there are no internet problems, where I say that it is every user w/ a computer's responsibility and problem if they get spam and viruses.

The companies that benefit from the spam should be the ones who are sued. He feels it is wrong to think that we should educate the public - we should just work around them - where I prefer to give people the knowledge and ability to take care of themselves online. It makes no sense to me to make it an ISP's problem if *I* am an idiot who keeps clicking the underlined, blue links w/out a thought.

In his scenerio, your ISP would be in trouble every time you got a virus thru being stupid. THAT makes no sense, its passing the buck... people refusing to take responsibility for the messes of their own making. And WHY is it not the companies sending the spam and the companies trying to make money from the spam who are sued, and the only company that can take legal action is the ISP? You can SEE who the email is supposed to benefit... sue THEM. They will think twice before asking to have spam sent on their behalf. If you can contact them to give them money, you can contact them to sue their asses.

Its every fucking idiot w/ a computer who causes these problems, so TEACH them! How freaking hard is that? With every computer sold there should be a firewall AND virus scanner built in, free forever (let the cost of domain names go up to cover or something) and keep it enabled no matter what... make it mandatory that it has to be on or you can't get to the net. That would solve 90% of it right there. Imagine if EVERYONE had a complex virus scanner/firewall combo like it or not? Make it all one powerful program that comes on every computer, and have every computer come w/ a virus prevention pamphlet they have to read before they go online. Even though that doesn't educate the public, it certainly puts the responsibility on the ones who SHOULD be responsible. no buck passing.

Have the computer test them before it performs its first internet connection or test them every week. A computer could easily do that. Wouldn't THAT take care of both? Educate the public AND work around the morons?

I can't fault the spamming companies so much... they found a way to make money the companies that have the spam sent out are the ones invading my mailbox. The spammers perform a service.

How about suing the people who sell your email address? if you signed up for something, and they sold your email address, SUE THEM! They gave away your private information. THEY are the assholes who make it possible for a spammer to know who I am and my email addy.

Here is an example.. I have domain names registered to me. The whois registry has my email address part of domain name reg. they have EITHER sold my name or bots crawl the whois for names, so right there I get hundreds of spams every few minutes lists are assembled and sold and resold. I can block them all permanantly, and get 200 new ones. It is a problem, I grant my father that much... but his solutions just WON'T work, and put the responsibility where it doesn't belong.

---- That was a rant via IM with a friend of mine.

Here are my thoughts in summation:

Facts: Viruses and spam email are wreaking havoc on the interent community as a whole. They have passed a law that gives the ISP (internet service providers) the sole right to sue the spammers if their mail server was used to send the spam. They are supposedly debating a law that sues the ISPs if a virus is sent out by one of their subscribers, insisting that they purchase and install virus scanning programs on their computers to block the spam at that level.

I have a problem with the accepted notion that an internet service provider should be held responsible for the actions of their subscribers. While there are steps they can take to assist in solving the problem, ultimately they should not be legally or morally responsible.

I agree that spam filters and virus scanners are part of the answer. I do NOT agree that it is the responsibility of my internet provider to control or scan my email and/or activity.

If we pass laws penalizing the middle-men, rather than the culprit, what does that say about our character as a nation? We are so busy pointing fingers, laying the blame at everyone else's feet when we are standing knee-deep in willfull ignorance and impatience.

The internet is made up of millions upon millions of computers interacting with each other. At each computer sits a person who is responsible for his or her actions online, just as much as we want them held accountable for their actions in the 'real' world.

We are a nation quickly losing the concept of justice, responsibility, and respect. Our morals are sinking to unknown lows. Our priorities are a mess, and ignorance is becoming something that is rewarded.

Yes spam is a problem. As a person who gets literally hundreds upon hundreds a day, I would cheerfully throttle the companies who insist they need to bombard me with their newest sales pitch, going so far as using fake email addresses and misleading subject lines simply to get me to open the email. (Do you know that the spam companies know if you opened the email? They do. Trust me)

I don't lay the blame on my cable company. It is MY email address, MY correspondance. I don't WANT them regulating what email I can or cannot receive. We don't allow anyone to interfere with our postal mail, why invite them into our electronic mail?

There is a simple solution to both the spam and viruses spread via email. EDUCATION. Teach anyone online how to prevent viruses. Some will always slip past, but for pities sakes, is it the telephone/cable wire's fault that you clicked on the attachment? Opened the email from someone you don't know? For goodness sakes, take some responsibility for the disaster of your own making.

If you aren't smart enough to avoid getting a virus, you shouldn't be online. It isn't difficult to think before you click a link, open an attachment or download a program.

There are FREE virus scanners that work just as well as anything you can purchase to protect your computer from a virus. AVG anti-virus is just ONE of them. Download it, install it, run it. DUH. This is difficult???

There is a FREE firewall to prevent hacker attacks, that also foils many viruses. Zone Alarm is free, and it works. Download it, install it, let it run. DUH.

Spam... that one is a little trickier. I don't want someone to determine what email I can see and what I can't. Who does? Mail Washer has a free version, I think, that works with one email account. Download it, install it, run it. Still not hard.

The answer to viruses, if you insist we shouldn't provide any knowledge to the morons online, would be to create a packaged program that combines a firewall with a virus scanner, and have it come installed and enabled on every new computer. Sure.. there are other computers out there, but that would surely cut down on the problem.
Heck, ask AOL to send it on their next CD release. Who hasn't gotten an AOL cd?

The answer to spam is to regulate (and if they do not comply, sue) the people who are profiting from sending the spam. The spam companies and the businesses paying them to send the spam are the people who profit from filling my inbox with crap. Hold THEM responsible.

Holding an ISP legally responsible for the actions of its subscribers would be like suing the phone company for telemarketing phone calls. I don't see why we treat the two differently, they are the exact same thing, just a different delivery method.

I have read the CanSpam act, and I agree with every regulation imposed by that law. Every email you receive is supposed to contain a subject that matches the content of the email (not Hello there! and content about a penis enlarger), each email must have the company name and address of the business or marketing company, and each email must provide a working opt-out method that is effective within 48 hours. (I THINK.. maybe a week max?)

I could go on forever, but I am exhausted. This subject has a lot more to be said about it, and I think I will take some more time tomarrow to go over my thoughts.

Just give me 10 minutes alone with the people selling my email address... While I am thinking about it.. What the heck are they thinking selling MY personal information as if it was theirs to sell in the first place? However they gathered the information, no matter if I filled out a contact form or purchased something from Amazon... (I do not mean to imply that they sell contact information, I don't know if they do or not at this moment in time, they are simply a well known name/business)

If I give my contact information to Amazon, it is for Amazon to use and for them alone. It is a perfectly legal and absolutely reprehensible practice to gather emails off the internet by straightforward and highly underhanded methods. They actually have PROGRAMS that crawl websites and collect every email address they find. They have a program that crawls the Internic records (domain name registrar) and gathers every email address needed to record a domain name.

Until we penalize those who sell this information to the spammers, the spammers for non-compliance and the businesses paying the spammers who send the emails, the spam will not cease. It is as plain as day to anyone with eyes to see, ears to hear and any small bit of active gray matter connected to those organs.

thus ends my rant of the moment.
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