Scenario #2: The Call-In

Someone said:

  >   A "public uprising" causing a denial of service attack
  >   on the guilty servers is illegal
 

Yes, an organized denial of service attack inflicted on one party by another party is illegal. But consider this:

It is perfectly within the law:

1. For thousands of people to comply with the request in the actual spam: "Click Here to Order" or "Visit our Web Site" even if they did so at the same moment
2. For thousands of people to independently click a link to a web site
3. For the talk show host to say he was sending in a complaint without urging anyone else do the same

Scenario #2: "The Call-In"

How about a person calling in to a popular radio show at a given time each day, giving a "spam report" and then citing the most blatant of today's spam intrusions, then slowly giving the domain would not be liable for any crime. Even if the host said:
  >   "I too should complain to that spammer and click
  >   to that web site right now!
  >   What was that address again?"
 

After a few of these broadcasts, millions of people would be tuned in to this radio show to hear "today's spam report" at their computers. Other radio stations would lose their audience for those few minutes. It would make nightly news, and the talk show host would be an overnight computer industry hero.
      In a few weeks, someone is going to notice. ISPs would suddenly take earnest notice of who is being hosted on their servers, and the industry would polarize into three kinds of ISPs:

• those with an honest intention of hosting legal, honorable clients;
• those who are spammers, or who don't care what happens from their equipment; and
• those in far away places who have open relay servers and are either too stupid to see what's going on, or are in complicity with the spammers.

Category #2 and #3 would then become the intense targets of the daily "Spam report" -- and, good riddance.

The results

One by one, day by day, the spammers would cease to exist. One by one they would go away. When they came back up, they'd be hit again. If they came back too many times, then their trunk provider would be hit.
      It's a great idea, and it would work perfectly well within the confines of existing laws. It would be slow, but not as slow as congress. It would be patchy, but not as patchy as individual complaints. Most importantly, the ISP and spam industries would get a message loud and clear that we're fed up with it, we're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it any more.
 

If you know of a way to get the attention of any of the top ten talk show hosts, please do so or let us know how. One of the major network nightly news shows would be even better. It is a matter of national interest.
      You can stop reading now, or you can continue to read more pros and cons about this concept. I also invite your comments or constructive suggestions.

Article Continues: "Is it Illegal?"

With kind regards, thanks for reading...

In this series:

• #158 Email problems getting SoBig
• #159 Nextel spams with paper
• #160 What to do about spam?
• #161 Legal Denial of Service
• #162 The "Fark dot com" Scenario

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