Can-Spam didn't, survey says

Nearly a year after its passage, the federal Can-Spam law has done little to curb spam, according to a year-end report due Monday.

MX Logic, an antispam company, said its surveys for the year showed widespread and flagrant disregard for the U.S. law that went into effect Jan. 1.

"The Can-Spam law has been in place for a year now, and according to our studies we've seen very little compliance," said Scott Chasin, chief technology officer of MX Logic in Denver. "The real benefit of Can-Spam is to the service providers, giving them the ability to go after those who send spam."

Large Internet service providers have indeed used the law to file suits against spammers. Microsoft this month filed seven suits alleging Can-Spam violations.

Can-Spam regulated how people and organizations could send unsolicited commercial e-mail, but 97 percent of such e-mail sent this year violated the law, according to MX Logic.

Spam made up 77 percent of e-mail traffic as a whole over the course of the year, MX Logic said. That's not even as bad as antispam company Postini's estimate that legitimate e-mail plummeted to 12 percent from 22 percent of e-mail traffic in 2004.

Despite the federal law, the U.S. dwarfed its nearest rival, South Korea, in being the origin of 42 percent of all spam this year.

Who'da thunk it?

The people who may have possibly believed that this "legislative" answer to SPAM would work probably also believe in the Tooth Fairy. This was political pandering at it's worst and nothing more. Recent studies have shown that the US is still home to many spammers but since no one is willing to spend the time or money necessary to shut these slugs down, it doesn't happen - nor will it. The only real answer will be for the standards to be changed to allow address verification and other technological methods to slow the flood.

[Al Johnsons]

only real answer

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[markdoiron]

Duh!

can-spam was doomed from the start because of opt-out. i hope that someone didn't pay for this study--the conclusion was blatantly obvious (and i'm a retired engineer who's just as interested in proof of theory/concept/solution as the next person, but let's not throw money after ridiculous studies!).

mark d.

[Tex Murphy PI]

Does this mean

that you don't support the Government funded studies into cattle flatulence?

[Jim Harmon]

Same people who thought gun control would work

There is a simple fact that those lawyers in DC don't seem to understand: Laws will never deter people.

All it does accomplish is to open the door for the government to take action to prosecute the offenders. If they don't, they have no one to blame but themselves if the offenses continue to happen.