According to this article on CNet - Judge ties antispammer's hands, SpamCop (now owned by IronPort) has had a restraining order since May 4th blocking them from transmitting or sending" "complaints it forwards to third-parties regarding (OptIn and its subsidiaries, divisions, companies, etc.) to ISPs". This case involves the company OptinRealBig.com.


Let me continue with my view of SPAM... I hate it and the folks that send it and I'm not going to form an opinion here on whether or not OptinRealBig.com is a spammer or not. What I do believe though, is that SpamCop and some of the other anti-spam vigilante groups need to be shut down. Julian Haight made is fortune by building SpamCop on the shoulders of innocent victims. He's been able to report large numbers of spammers being put out of business and thus was able to secure a buyout ($1M+) by IronPort. I do not believe that SpamCop has been able to put ANY hard core spammer out of business. Otherwise, my email program wouldn't be a total waste of my time.

A legitimate newsletter publisher could be put out of business by SpamCop (and they have) due to one subscriber forgetting that they really did subscribe to a newsletter and subsequently forwarding a spam complaint to SpamCop. An ISP with a zero tolerance policy regarding SPAM that gives credence to SpamCop complaints then shuts the newsletter publisher down. The newsletter publisher has no idea who filed the complaint, can't remove the complainer from their list, and if they are lucky enough to find a new ISP and hosting company, they run the risk of losing their business again due to a followup complaint by the same subscriber that filed the original complaint.

SpamCop gets their credit for shutting down one more "spammer", but did they really? Anti-Spammers probably do not want to put the hard core spammers out of business. If they did, who'd buy their services? It'd be like Symantec, McAfee, and Microsoft actually creating a solution that prevents viruses. If they did, their stock would fall through the floor. With each new article on the plague of spam, the new threat by the Melissa-Watcha-Callit-Bug/WS, the sales go up for anti-spam/anti-virus solutions.

The solution for spam is not in the hands of vigilantes like SpamCop, the solution is in the hands of the consumer. Stop buying from them! Stop buying the products promoted by SPAM. If you're concerned about the size of your (insert body part here) or that you can't perform or that you weigh too much, then go see your doctor. The answer is not in clicking on one of the obvious spam messages.

Next, start complaining to Microsoft, AOL, Earthlink, ComCast or whoever else carries your email. Demand that they get their act together and fix the email protocols. Spammers can hide, thus they get by with their trade. If the email system was fixed to prevent someone from sending email and hiding their identity, spam would go away. I don't believe that the big guys want to do this. I think AOL would love it if AOLers would email only between other AOLers and not accept mail from domains other than those belonging to AOL.com (or those that have paid for advertising rights - See also Microsoft's Bonded Sender program). If you keep all your sheep herded together, you can shear them anytime you want.