Everyone wants to stop spam. Most people want unfettered access to Internet resources. Some people want the rest of us to only have fettered access.
But because the last group has a more powerful business model, we're still being hit with spam, and most of us don't have unfettered access to the Internet.
The problem with spam is simple. Spammers have more powerful business models than anti-spammers. Most of those engaged in the anti-spam fight are volunteers. Steve Linford of Spamhaus is not getting rich off fighting spam.
Spammers, on the other hand, are still getting rich.
There are a host of illegal, immoral, and black market goods out there which, even with spam's spammic reputation, will still pay spammers to hit you. We're talking here of gambling sites, porn sites, drug knock-offs, stock scams, phony contests, even multi-level marketing of legal products. Spammers also have "new products," like Googlebombing, adware viruses and comment spam, to get these goods in front of consumers no matter what.
By contrast, Linford and Spamhaus has been "rolling up" the anti-spam space because, frankly, there is not much money in it. That's why he acquired SPEWS, to survive. Linford described some of the problems quite frankly two years ago.
And it's tough to fight crime, because crime fights back. Spammers have called Linford a terrorist, they have targeted him in a child porn ring, they have targeted him with viruses. Most recently they have sued Spamhaus in a U.S. court (whose jurisdiction he doesn't recognize) and tried to take his domain name.
These are not nice little Spamfords, folks. These are dangerous criminals. Russian mafia. The same bastards who got Anna Politkovskaya. I would not put an assassination attempt on Linford past these people. I would not be surprised to learn there is a contract out on him right now.
Censorware, on
the other hand, goes from strength to strength. Corporations,
governments, schools and libraries pay big bucks every year for "content control" software,
in order to keep political extremists from complaining. The content of
the censors' blacklists is not made public. It isn't just "porn" sites,
but just about any content that someone (at the censorware company or
elsewhere) might possibly object to. And it's damned hard to get off
the censor list. Especially since it's so hard to find you're on it.
It's a huge industry. There are literally hundreds of firms involved today. Anyone who doesn't pay off to the industry is simply accused of being "for child porn" or something.
And one of the most heavily censored sites? That's right, the anti-censorware people.
OK,
I've got an agenda here. I don't like "content control" software. I
prefer to control the Internet's vertical and horizontal by myself. I prefer to have my kids
learn to do this as well. And I hate spam. I am still dealing with a
comment spam attack on voic.us, a Drupal site I manage.
But my point today is not political. It's a business point. Why should content filtering software have a more powerful, profitable business model than anti-spam blacklisting? And what can we do to change that?
NOTE: Comment spam hit this thread and I've closed off comments.
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