Happy Days Are Here Again!

The alleged Seattle Spammer is indicted, booked and docketed for trial on 6 August 2007. Anyone want to bet the defense will try a change of venue motion, to move the trial out of the Silicon Forest to someplace less Internet-manic than Pugetopolis?

“Spam is a scourge of the Internet, and Robert Soloway is one of its most prolific practitioners. Our investigators dubbed him the Spam King because he is responsible for millions of spam e-mails,” Jeffrey Sullivan, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, said in a statement.

200 spammers are alleged to generate 80% of worldwide spam; and, when we go to the planets and stars, will there be spam there, too?

Computer science has failed us, as this Scientific American story shows. Esteemed First Blogger Dr. Jerry Pournelle (now back east, to use ‘science fiction in the public interest’ for Homeland Security, along with other Rocket Scientists, SF writers and ‘deviant thinkers’) has long suggested Cato’s solution, subcontracted to enterprising entrepreneurs like, oh, say, The Godfather Corporation.

But there are some things even Godfathers won’t do… so, do we need lawyers? A classical libertarian solution would be for those bothered by spam, spamdexing, spim, and all the rest of the thousand and one annoyances of greed, would be to create a not-for-profit corporation, obtain IRS 501(c)(3) provisional status, open the books to audits, and provide total information to non-profit information clearinghouses such as Guidestar and Charity Navigator.

Then, buy one tiny text ad on Google, accepting audited PayPal contributions to stamp out spam, by fully funding independent investigators (such as the excellent Greg Palast, whose talents are wholly wasted in searching for Carl Rove’s 500 missing e-mails) and thence to support prosecutions.

What do you think?

Sincerely yours,

Inflorescence B. Afghan

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