Should spamming be a capital offense?
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M$4 Answers
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M$There was a short story that I read years ago that used the phrase, techno-capital offense. The phrase refered to killing someone's technology side.
In the story, people that committed certain crimes were banned from using any kind of technology for anywhere from six months to ten years. The people that were guilty of these types of crimes were sent out to a compound in the western part of the country where they lived in log cabins, had to hunt for food, and most technological item that they could use was a typewriter. Essentially, these people had to live like the unibomber.
The amazing thing about this story was that people were overly dependent on their tech. It really painted an interesting picture about how life is getting to be right now. It also pointed out that the more technology that people get, the less they know about survival skills, and about life in general.
But I digress.
I a a strong supporter of the thought that spammers should be punished in the system. I like the idea about how some hackers cannot touch a computer for a certain number of years. Some, can't even own a home phone line. I like this idea, and think that it should apply to spammers as well as hackers.
I am sure that you have seen, read, or at least heard about the lawyer who quit his job eight years ago to become a lawyer who sues spammers. I linked it below if you did not. I truely believe that the numbers of these types of legal eagles will skyrocket in the next few years. People have been dealing with spam for a long time, and are tired of it.
To directly touch on your point about this being a capital offense, it is a very intersting topic. As you know, I was a political/business consultant. When I went to college for political science, I had a professor point out an intersting fact about capital punisment. He explained the snowball effect with captial punishment and pointed out that once countries started to add reasons, they usually went out of control.
I am a supporter of capital punishment for many years. I do not think that it should apply to any more crimes than it does right now. If we begin adding reasons for capital punishment now, questions like, "well how about this reason?" are usually soon to follow.
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M$
No, spam wastes a persons time. Just a little bit, but when multiplied by the millions of spam items a single spammer sends out, it adds up to killing many people. The laws on this don't seem to be doing the math.
If you notice, no capital offenses in the United States deal with causing someone financial harm. That is usually the worst that spam could do.
I suppose Hammurabi did have it right. But couldn't we just make this one exception for spammers only?
It doesn't work like that.
3.000.000.000 x 1 second wasted doesn't mean you just killed a person, even though it adds up to nearly 100 years.
On what grounds do you claim it doesn't work like that? It seems logical to me.
First of all, I don't support capital punishment for any crime, simply because it's irreversible, and sadly our justice system isn't infallible.
Too often have I heard or read about convicts who are set free because the evidence was tampered with, or 'new evidence' showed they actually didn't do it anyway. Capital Punishment is a twrribly bad idea, as long as no-one can prove that justice is without fault, and is always totally honest, just, and right.
Secondly, there are FAR more serious crimes than posting spam. Yes, spam is a nuisance, it is harmful, and it costs a lot of companies a lot of money (especially the ISPs). However, it is nowhere as harmful as any physical damage done to any human of animal, and therefore should be seen at par with crimes like fraud, theft or purposely inflicting damage to property. None of these crimes deserve a death penalty, and some won't even get you sent to prison.
I would much rather see these spammers be charged with paying $0.01 per spam email they sent, and if they don't have any money (which I don't believe, as spamming is lucrative business), one day in prison per $50 (or per 500 spam emails sent).
Of course, simply going after the spammers is only half the story. What would actually help a lot better, would be to charge the countries that allow spammers to send spam from their soil. Russia, several eastern-Europe countries, China, Japan and Nigeria are some of the notorious sources of spam. If they don't take appropriate action, a similar penalty should be given to those countries, forcing them to stop being a safe haven for these spammers.
Maybe that would be the best solution to finally reduce spam. Until that time, we'll have to endure the spam that's being sent our way.
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M$
But, it is not possible to fine or jail a spammer, as a general rule. Those are not options. The spammer is based out of the jurisdiction of normal courts, with his tools of crime scattered around the world. His source of income is unknowable and his bank accounts hidden. Only an assassin can actually achieve anything against a spammer.
@albanian, i fully understand the magnitude of spam, and the damage it does. I fully understand that the average huamn being, who isn't careful with his email address, will be swamped by spam emails. I KNOW that 93%+ of all email traffic is spam.
Fortunately, there are very good counter-measures that allow ANY computer user to shield himself from spam email, and websites (forums/Q&A sites etc) are equally able to shield spam if they bother to take the correct countermeasures.
However, if someone becomes a victim of spam, because (s)he is careless about leaving his/her email address on websites, I don't really feel sorry for that person. It's like leaving your creditcard on a table in a park, with a sticky-note with your security code on it.
All that said, spam is a nuisance and every attempt should be taken to stop it. However, when considering the appropriate punishment for any spammer that's being caught, it is my firm belief that a substantial fine, combined with a jail sentence is THE appropriate punishment.
And yes, that is after I have done the math.
Even a deliberately unhelpful helpdesk person could not physically "virtually kill" a single total person-life over the course of his career. I don't care about the money aspect at all, I think that is the wrong track entirely. What I am maintaining is that this new technology and its criminal effects are not understood either by the law, the politicians, or even by the victims. No one is doing the math.
Oh, one addition:
"Even a deliberately unhelpful helpdesk person could not physically "virtually kill" a single total person-life over the course of his career"
You obviously haven't had to deal with many helpdesk persons ;)
In The Netherlands we have a comedian who has dedicated a large part of his current activities to destroying T-mobile for its purposeful attempt to annoy 'customers'. They don't take the 'help' part in 'helpdesk' very seriously...
Well, of course other crimes usually do more damage to any one victim. But the thing about spam is it affects thousands or millions or more victims. And that's each spam sent out. So even if it only wastes a second of a victim's life, when you multiply that second by millions the spammer has wasted many people-lifetimes. That amounts to mass murder.
If wasting time would be a capital offence, then many companies would have their helpdesk employees hanged.
Over 25% of your life is wasted waiting and wasting.
Yes, spam is annoying, and it costs time, but it still doesn't inflict ANY physical damage at all, and therefore it simply doesn't qualify for a capital punishment.
Even a huge financial scammer, who would repeatedly steal one cent from each US resident, thereby collecting millions of dollars, while inflicting moderate financial damage to 300 Million+ people would not get anything beyond a prison cell punishment of a number of years.
So, again, your proposal for retributal with a death penalty is simply not in the same league as the crime committed.
General Conditions sections 3 and 7 (b)
3. - "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time"
7. (b) "Mahalo may terminate your Mahalo Account and access to or use of the Services for any reason or no reason, with or without notice, at any time."
I swiftly and with less than zero remorse execute every spammer profile I come across by banning the Mahalo profile. This in effect "Kills" that user/spammer. Unfortunately spammers are like zombies in that they do not like to stay dead.
Please use the red "report" button. :)
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M$
:)