Will certified e-mail stop spam? (was: unsubscribing... etc)

[Peter]

On Sat, 15 Apr 2006, CLIFFORD ILKAY wrote:

> On April 15, 2006 02:49, Walter Dnes wrote:
>> On Thu, Apr 13, 2006 at 03:43:42PM -0400, wattst-dxuVLtCph9gsA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org wrote
>>
>>>> "Anybody whose computer was zombied gets a scary bill and the
>>>> alternative of terminating the account or immediately sanitizing
>>>> the computer and maybe paying a reduced fee for the
>>>> inconvenience caused."
>>>
>>> This is absolutely what I don't believe can happen.  I guess
>>> that's just how I see it and will drag my feet the whole way
>>> should anyone decide to implement this system.
>>
>>    What I'm waiting for is somebody getting their computer zombied,
>> and used in a DDOS, or spamblast, and being sued for "contributory
>> negligence" by the victim.  This might scare some sense into
>> people.
>
> Blame the victim. As long as you're throwing around big lawyerly
> sounding phrases like "contributory negligence", why aren't you
> proposing that Microsoft be sued or in some way censured? Could it be

Agree 100%, but they would sue back and win even if they would loose 
(see the antitrust case for a precedent). Grandma can afford to pay a 
$10 'fine' when she neglected to notice that her computer slowed down a 
lot and seems to be thrashing a lot, and ignored this for about a month, 
instead of calling her support person. She could have saved the call if 
she would have installed a more secure system, like Linux, or kept out 
of trouble. The small fee should start make John Q. Public notice that 
something is wrong with the way they make decisions about software and 
who sets it up in a language they understand, that of dollar and cents. 
Unlike the language of futile warnings and polite requests to upgrade 
software and install protection, and to have this done by someone who 
really knows what he's doing.

After a while word should get around and people should start doing the 
right thing before trouble starts, or at least asap. Pavlovian reflex 
induced by modern billing methods.

Of course the cost for people who comply in the first place would be 
essentially zero (less the deposit, which could be sold as a 
refundable 'online fraud insurance fee' - and that's exactly what it 
is).

Peter
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