From: qwerty-remailer@netcom.com
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 94 18:16:14 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: anonymous mail bombers and what to do about them
Message-ID: <199402030216.SAA01922@mail.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Don't feed the animals.

Generally, when one person is mail-bombing another, either there 
has been a fair amount of provocation by at least one of the parties,
and escalation of childishness isn't as useful as trying to
resolve some of your differences, though it can offer a certain amount
of basic 4-year-old ego satisfaction.  

If somebody's mail-bombing you, and they're root, and they're not doing
it anonymously, you don't need to either; the worst revealing your 
identity will do at that point is encourage them to mail-bomb you.
And your system administrator probably already knows who you are by now,
assuming the bombing has been at a high rate.

If the bomber is root on his home machine, and the bombs include
bad words that aren't mere reflections of your words to him,
you could always complain to the phone company that you're receiving
obscene phone calls.  I doubt the policies or laws about that
specify whether the calls have to be made in spoken English....

If the bomber is root on his business machine, you can complain to
his management, assuming you can locate them.  Some managers get
very bent out of shape about this and do random clueless things,
others conservatively protect their company images,
others ask what state and federal laws have been broken and
tell you to stifle yourself if the answer is "none".

If the bomber is root on his home PC at a university,
arbitrary randomness can occur.

On the other hand, if you're really L- D-, and the person who is
mailbombing you is Perry Metzger, expending large amounts of
childishness in his direction will not accomplish anything positive
for either of you, and if both of you start sending N copies of
each others' mail to each other, exponential growth will not
help either of your systems.  If you're not really L- D-, but
the person who is mailbombing you is still Perry, try talking
rationally to him; he can do that just fine if he thinks it's worthwhile.

If you're really L- D-, and the person is or is not Perry, we can help.
Post your full name, home address with precise latitude  and longitude,
and we'll be happy to deliver some advanced plutonium products 
you may find useful in resolving your problems.

				"Deuterium"
				(oh - wait - maybe I'm "Tritium" today?)
				(or was that "Lithium"?)