Make Comment, Forum and other Electronic Non-Email SPam Illegal
- by: Alliance for Ethics in Online Advertising
- recipient: US Congress
Did you know non-email spam is not illegal? All of those messages being posted on web forums, blogs and other sites in the comment areas asking you to buy something or providing random links to websites are not illegal. MySpace, however, has successfully filed civil suits against major spammers either on grounds that accounts were phished/hacked or that the messages sent did constitute as email under the CAN-SPAM Act since they were electronic messages.
Unfortunately, thanks to programs like xrumer and other methods, spammers do not need to phish for account information when logging into a message board, forum or website where comments are allowed. As well, the sites that get hit the hardest by this type of spam are smaller sites with less labor resources than MySpace or Microsoft and have less ability to track down the source of spam and file civil actions against them.
Finally web non-email spam is facilitated by online forums and communities themselves by allowing the sale of such services. While a majority of these are small seedy parts of the internet there are a few, much larger and more public forums that facilitate the buying and selling of these services to boost sales and search engine rankings. One of these is known as the "Digital Point" you can see an example of the non-email spam being sold on their website here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1327533
Non-email spam most likely cost millions a year, if not more, to get rid of and would become less of a nuisance if the U.S. congress passed laws banning it's useage and providing criminal punishment for those engaging in it. Likewise, since the internet is global, a U.S. law being passed would encourage other nations to pass laws further decreasing the amount of non-email spam being sent and posted around the internet.
Unfortunately, thanks to programs like xrumer and other methods, spammers do not need to phish for account information when logging into a message board, forum or website where comments are allowed. As well, the sites that get hit the hardest by this type of spam are smaller sites with less labor resources than MySpace or Microsoft and have less ability to track down the source of spam and file civil actions against them.
Finally web non-email spam is facilitated by online forums and communities themselves by allowing the sale of such services. While a majority of these are small seedy parts of the internet there are a few, much larger and more public forums that facilitate the buying and selling of these services to boost sales and search engine rankings. One of these is known as the "Digital Point" you can see an example of the non-email spam being sold on their website here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1327533
Non-email spam most likely cost millions a year, if not more, to get rid of and would become less of a nuisance if the U.S. congress passed laws banning it's useage and providing criminal punishment for those engaging in it. Likewise, since the internet is global, a U.S. law being passed would encourage other nations to pass laws further decreasing the amount of non-email spam being sent and posted around the internet.
We the undersigned hereby ask you to make illegal the creation, use, or distribution of software that post unwanted non-email advertising messages to other websites; as well as the sale of, facilitation of the sale of, and/or the act of posting electronic messages with the intent of advertising in electronic non-email mediums such as web forums, message boards, comments on news articles and blogs and other forms of non-email spam.
Non-email spam creates a heavy burden on both internet users and companies attempting to exist on the internet. Most of this is facilitated by software programs that automate the process by bypassing security features of numerous other software programs to post the spam. This type of spam is also largely purchased by other websites seeking to force themselves on another websites users without violating the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and without violating phishing laws.
This more recent type of spam avoids current legislation laid out to protect internet users from unwanted messages and uses the actual websites where internet users congregate and participate in online activities to distribute the spam messages in a non-message format. Software programs such as 'xrumer' can be purchased and downloaded and are said to bypass numerous security features and trick internet users and websites into facilitating the spam and allowing it to perpetuate with sophisticated techniques that they have deemed not in violation of current anti-spam legislation.
As well there are large business to business communities based on the internet where the facilitation of this type of spam takes place, almost always because they say there is no U.S. legislation against such spam messages or the buying and selling of them. You can see an example here where a person is selling automated spam to 30,000 websites and admits that this is an unwanted act by those websites: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1327533
Legislation against the above would eliminate the majority of the software through normal channels, eliminate the public buying and selling of this type of spam and give web companies the ability to take those who spam them into civil litigation further reducing the attraction of participating in this type of extreme mass solicitation.
Thank you for taking the time to read our letter of concern and please take action against non-email spam on the internet.
Sign PetitionSign PetitionNon-email spam creates a heavy burden on both internet users and companies attempting to exist on the internet. Most of this is facilitated by software programs that automate the process by bypassing security features of numerous other software programs to post the spam. This type of spam is also largely purchased by other websites seeking to force themselves on another websites users without violating the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and without violating phishing laws.
This more recent type of spam avoids current legislation laid out to protect internet users from unwanted messages and uses the actual websites where internet users congregate and participate in online activities to distribute the spam messages in a non-message format. Software programs such as 'xrumer' can be purchased and downloaded and are said to bypass numerous security features and trick internet users and websites into facilitating the spam and allowing it to perpetuate with sophisticated techniques that they have deemed not in violation of current anti-spam legislation.
As well there are large business to business communities based on the internet where the facilitation of this type of spam takes place, almost always because they say there is no U.S. legislation against such spam messages or the buying and selling of them. You can see an example here where a person is selling automated spam to 30,000 websites and admits that this is an unwanted act by those websites: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1327533
Legislation against the above would eliminate the majority of the software through normal channels, eliminate the public buying and selling of this type of spam and give web companies the ability to take those who spam them into civil litigation further reducing the attraction of participating in this type of extreme mass solicitation.
Thank you for taking the time to read our letter of concern and please take action against non-email spam on the internet.
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