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In the category of whipping the financial hides of the gelatinous, ground-meat spammers, Greg Litchfield suggests that "each ISP charges its customers one half-penny per email sent [and delivered], all fees are paid in advance, like postage stamps, [and if you] want to send a million E-mails hawking the latest gizmo, potion, or placebo, ante up the $5,000--in advance--and you're on your way"; Brian Sherwood says he likes "the idea of charging a small amount, say 1 cent per E-mail sent. This would be next to negligible for most users, including my teenagers! But, it could be extremely expensive for spammers! I read somewhere about one guy who sends 4 million E-mails per day. That would cost him $40,000 per day for the privilege of bothering the rest of us"; and John Lepant says that while he's sure his solution will be unpopular, it will surely work if we "simply charge for E-mail: right now it's a free service: I can send 10,000 of these messages, or 10,000,000 or just one for the same price. Charge 1 cent per E-mail, and spam will evaporate. People never like this idea: It's a 'tax' on the Internet: it will add 'costs' to businesses. That's baloney. ... What's costing businesses money is the cost of dealing with spam."
Other strong ideas involved forcing ISPs to be responsible for what's pumped through their networks, forcing the makers of the stuff that gets advertised to police their channels or assume liability for the spamming, raiding the physical sites of spammers and confiscating their computers, and abstinence: "Do not (under any circumstances) buy their products! They will stop if their costs are higher than their revenue!" (thank you, Carl Edmunds). And, again, all of your ideas--the ones advocating education, and all the others proposing one or more of these solutions, can be found here.
But hey--enough about spam. At this holiday time of year, please accept from all of us at InformationWeek our best wishes to you and your family for a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, or whatever other celebration you'll be enjoying. And may 2005 be your best year ever!
Bob Evans
Editorial director
[email protected]
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