The Game is Over

It's nice to know that the end of spam is at hand. Now that the good folks at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have decided that spam is a bad thing, I'm sure that the spammers will see the error of their ways and go back to less obtrusive ways of getting their message across--telemarketing, say, or trying to put the 937th blow-in card in your favorite magazine.

I suppose I should give the bureaucrats credit for trying to address the problem, but I'm not convinced that incredibly broad statements are the answer. "...there was widely held view that along with legislation, there was a need to deploy effective technical measures at the level of ISPs, carriers, mobile operators and end-users." Really?!? As my sixteen-year-old son would say, "No duh."

What we don't need is regulation on a global scale that tells us how to use e-mail. Spam is a PITA, and it takes some effort to knock it down, but that doesn't mean I need a trans-global sledgehammer protecting me from people who think my love life would improve if I just "gained confidence" by taking their little pills. The various levels of spam filters already make sure that I don't see nearly as many SPAM messages as I do ads for personal ungents on television, and I'm confident that SPAM will diminish as its effectiveness decreases. In the meantime, I think I'll just be grateful that happy, vague press releases are as much action as the ITU is likely to generate on this particular topic.