The Internet magnifies life. It offers virtually anything you want, but sometimes more than you can handle. E-mail, for example. People register their Internet address with search engines and directories so other people can find them. Soon, they find their e-mail in-box packed with hundreds of sales. pitches that they don’t want – from people they don’t want to know. It’s called spam, and it is practically free for the senders. We can all expect a lot more of it un- less…
On Friday, B2B News readers replied with a Simple Spam Solu- tion in an informal e-mail survey: ‘Internet Service Providers hold the power to set the price, and can therefore control the volume, of e- mail. They can charge their cus tomers by the piece for sending e- mail on an increasing, sliding seale above a certain level. Sending e- mail would remain free to custom- ers up to some reasonable amount. The number of spam complaints will go down in proportion to the increase in the cost of sending e- mail. The additional revenues for Internet Service Providers will pro- vide funds needed for system up- grades and profit.’
So far, remedies to this emotional and controversial Internet issue have been limited to defensive measures. Filtering software can prevent certain domain names from entering e-mail in-boxes. But spammers change their e-mail addresses often, and new spammers are born every day. Internet Service Providers try to control spammers by evicting them after complaints are received. That doesn’t stop the activity; it just moves the spammer to another address. Lawsuits and judgments against spammers are ineffective because the Internet is global, and legislation has it’s borders. Anti- spammers are spamming spammers in angry retaliation. That’s not productive. Attempting to enforce voluntary compliance with so-called ‘net-etiquette’ or ‘acceptable practices’ has been ineffective.
In 1937, the creator of the trademark SPAM, JC Hormel, judgments against couldn’t have known that sixty spammers are ineffective because the Internet is global, and legislation has its borders years later SPAM luncheon meat would become the talk of the Internet, making it one of the most recognized brands in the world in 1997. The Internet use of the trademark SPAM is derived from a skit performed on the British television show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, in which the word ‘spam’ is repeated to the point of absurdity in a restaurant menu. Share your thoughts about this. Simple Spam Solution at http:// DoyleMarketing.com
