I agree with John Tuttle that his nightmare scenario involving
the government would not be viable.  However, there is a place for
government action regarding spam.  That would be to enact laws similar
to the ones regarding telemarketer scum, which affix penalties and
monetary damages that the victim may collect in small claims court
from telemarketeers.

The new national law that will shortly come into effect for a
telemarketer no-call list may be a good blueprint for something
similar regarding e-mail.

For the person who is willing to investigate and track down the
spammers, they should be allowed to collect three times the damages
as for telemarketers, because of the difficulty that may be encountered
in tracking them down. I believe the damages that may be assessed
against telemarketers are something around $1,500 for each offense.

Actually, I can see where this could lead to a cottage industry for
computer hackers who have the in-depth knowledge of the Internet.
They could offer a service for tracking and assistance with prosecuting
spammers, for a percentage of the judgment.  An all-out assault on
these criminals by the populace, that will hit the criminals in the
pocketbook, is the only thing that will really be effective.

The Government has already shown itself to be ineffective in
permanently shutting down telemarketer scammers.  They allow the same
players to just change the name of their boiler room operation, and
continue to scam the populace, over and over and over.  With a good law
for damages in place, Joe Blow, with the help of some hackers might be
able to do the job nicely.

For miscreants who are off shore, so as to be unreachable, maybe we
could send in secret assassination squads funded by the big ISPs.  :o)

Tom Lear
San Francisco, Calif.