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

[phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org]

>>    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.
>
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I avoid lawyers, except as drinking buddies.

You leave your car unlocked. A criminal steals the car and then hits
someone with it. Is that 'contributory negligence'? As far as I know, it's
not.

On the other hand, suppose you leave your house unlocked. Someone steals
an improperly stored gun and uses it to kill another person. Is that
contributory negligence?

Again, as far as I know, it's not. The gun owner would get dinged for
unsafe storage of a firearm. The gun owner *might* be sued by the
relatives of the deceased person, depending on the circumstances.

However, a firearm is *much* more obviously a dangerous device than a
computer. And killing someone is obviously much more serious than sending
spam.

So the onus would be on the person initiating the suit to show that they
had suffered serious monetary losses, and that the owner of the computer
should have taken measures to prevent its misappropriation.

Furthermore, as a practical matter it's not much use suing individuals
unless they have deep pockets. It might be more effective to sue the
manufacturer of the operating system. They may have deep pockets, but the
pockets are full of lawyers.

Peter

-- 
Peter Hiscocks
Syscomp Electronic Design Limited, Toronto
http://www.syscompdesign.com
USB Oscilloscope and Waveform Generator
647-839-0325

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