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

[billt-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org]

> 
> 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.

The problem with 'the small fee' scenerio is that it will become the reason to police things. Instead of investigating and stopping spammers, the authorities in question will investigate and fine the victoms of these attacks. Also the victims of these attacks may quickly decide that the fee 'is part of doing business' espeically if its infrequent and small.

What you will get is the situation similar to parking enforcement. The authorities aren't interested in stopping illegal parking or remedying it by legislating solutions because the infraction is too lucrative a business.

> 
> 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.

More likely they will see the fine as part of doing business. If getting caught is infrequent, then why bother with the latest updates?

Also if such a system is instituted why don't you think that a class action suit against Microsoft won't ensue. It is their product that is causing people to be fined. Why do you think a civil court won't find Microsoft negligent?

Finally why do you think you ISP wouldn't end up in court for allowing such dangerous practices on their network? 

An ISP can easily set up a quota system (say 1000 emails a day) and 99.99% of the machines out there wouldn't notice. This would immediately kill all spammers. The few people (say someone running a mailing list) can put in for an exemption, have to sign papers saying they will take responsibility for any spam from their machine generates.

Bill

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