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> If it requires real money, spammers will steal that. If you raise the cost of sending a single piece of spam sufficiently, spam will vanish. Exactly the way
by asciilifeform 18y ago
> If it requires real money, spammers will steal that.
If you raise the cost of sending a single piece of spam sufficiently, spam will vanish. Exactly the way junk snailmail would, if the US Postal Service did not subsidize it.
- wmf 18y agoIf you raise the cost of sending a single piece of spam sufficiently, spam will vanish. Assuming that sending spam costs the same as sending other mail, the cost is limited by what people will bear for their legitimate mail. I claim that spammers can simply steal enough money (possibly out of users' mail clients) to pay for their spam.
- Psyonic 18y agoIf they could do that, why aren't they already? Certainly not for ethical reasons...
- wmf 18y agoAFAIK a lot of spam comes from botnets, which are stolen resources. Also, one might argue that spammers are just people who are too dumb or too chicken to engage in real cybercrime, given that it appears to be more profitable.
- briansmith 18y agoJunkmail is not subsidized by the USPS. Why would you think it is?
- asciilifeform 18y ago"Subsidize" was perhaps not the right word. The USPS has become primarily a junk mail delivery service: http://www.newser.com/story/21936/usps-defends-its-life-blood-junk-mail.html http://www.newser.com/story/21936/usps-defends-its-life-bloo...