From: Alan <alano@teleport.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 04:52:41 +0800
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: [Tangent] Spam and the Unibomber
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970604124518.14450E-100000@well.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.970604132328.8869A-100000@linda.teleport.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



On Wed, 4 Jun 1997, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> 	If you banned commercial e-mail,
> 	wouldn't it just affect legitimate
> 	commercial transactions?  That is to say,
> 	wouldn't fly-by-night pyramid-scheme
> 	builders still be able to spam?  I would
> 	think that if they are so untraceable
> 	that it's hard to block their spam that
> 	it wouldn't really matter if it were
> 	simply made illegal.

This reminded me of a thought I had this morning...

If the Unibomber had actually wanted to improve his reputation capitol, he
should have gane about things differently.

Instead of going after college professors and the like (which only appeals
to MUDers and other people failing thair classes) he should have taken on
a different group.

If he had issued out a Make Money Fast pyramid scheme with his PO box as
one of the addresses and then sent bombs to those who responded, he would
have been the hero to millions.  By eliminating would-be spammers from the
downline of life, he would have been the savior to millions.  he would
have web pages in his honor.  He would have bumper stickers with such
slogans as "SPAM = DEATH" made in his honor.

But he blew it...

I guess we can only dream of it happening in our lifetime...

alano@teleport.com | "Those who are without history are doomed to retype it."