Comments on: U.S. makes first arrest for spim

Teen allegedly sent 1.5 million unsolicited instant messages--or spim--to members of the MySpace.com online networking service.

Okay, we before we get any more idiotic here..

SPIM should be illegal because it's harrassment. I'm pretty sure it doesn't say anything about SPIM/SPAM being okay in the Terms and Agreements of MySpace's website. Telemarketing is illegal, because it's harrassment. SPIMMING/SPAMMING is the exact same thing, except over the Internet and slightly more anonymous. That doesn't make it right though. Yes, I am well aware that there is a block button. But you know what? I didn't agree when I joined the site that I'd have to constantly be using it. Sure, I can block a SPIMMER. But then another one just pops up. Blocking does absolutely nothing. It's like putting a band-aid on a huge gaping hole in a ship. It's NOT gonna work.

There are companies who SPAM/SPIM, and yes, you can't arrest an entire company. But this MySpace guy acted alone. I suppose that the punishment for SPAMMING companies could be that the government breaks that company up.

SPIMMING/SPAMMING SHOULD be illegal because it is harrassment and no one should have to put up with that crap, whether it be online or offline, caused by a single member or an entire party.

[pcLoadLetter]

Telemarketing is not illegal in the states

Where did you get that idea?

Okay, we before we get any more idiotic here..

SPIM should be illegal because it's harrassment. I'm pretty sure it doesn't say anything about SPIM/SPAM being okay in the Terms and Agreements of MySpace's website. Telemarketing is illegal, because it's harrassment. SPIMMING/SPAMMING is the exact same thing, except over the Internet and slightly more anonymous. That doesn't make it right though. Yes, I am well aware that there is a block button. But you know what? I didn't agree when I joined the site that I'd have to constantly be using it. Sure, I can block a SPIMMER. But then another one just pops up. Blocking does absolutely nothing. It's like putting a band-aid on a huge gaping hole in a ship. It's NOT gonna work.

There are companies who SPAM/SPIM, and yes, you can't arrest an entire company. But this MySpace guy acted alone. I suppose that the punishment for SPAMMING companies could be that the government breaks that company up.

SPIMMING/SPAMMING SHOULD be illegal because it is harrassment and no one should have to put up with that crap, whether it be online or offline, caused by a single member or an entire party.

[pcLoadLetter]

Telemarketing is not illegal in the states

Where did you get that idea?

Wow

Wow...I never knew somebody could get arrested for Spamming! This is really quite interesting..I am a member of MySpace.com, but never once have I known this guy..how strange..Thats just weird because I have never heard of a person bein prosecuted for Sapmming...better yet arrested! This is really something!

Well. . .

I think he's really been arrested for extortion, not spamming. Unfortunately, spamming by itself is not illegal--you have to commit some other crime while spamming, such as using fraudulent headers or something like that. This guy basically told MySpace to let him continue doing it legitimating or he would tell others how to spam MySpace users, so, in a sense, he threatened their business somewhat by threatening to dump more spam on MySpace users--definitely adding a reason not to use the service.

Wow

Wow...I never knew somebody could get arrested for Spamming! This is really quite interesting..I am a member of MySpace.com, but never once have I known this guy..how strange..Thats just weird because I have never heard of a person bein prosecuted for Sapmming...better yet arrested! This is really something!

Well. . .

I think he's really been arrested for extortion, not spamming. Unfortunately, spamming by itself is not illegal--you have to commit some other crime while spamming, such as using fraudulent headers or something like that. This guy basically told MySpace to let him continue doing it legitimating or he would tell others how to spam MySpace users, so, in a sense, he threatened their business somewhat by threatening to dump more spam on MySpace users--definitely adding a reason not to use the service.

[linnetwoods]

Spim, spam, spin...

That someone has finally been caught, out of the many who have helped to contribute to the misery of millions as we wade through our inboxes full of trash, can only be a good thing.

What might amaze some people is that the 'Internet Marketeers' who teach people how to bombard others with pointless and mainly ineffective emails, through 'courses' and 'seminars', 'books' and 'tutorials', are not also brought to book, being pretty easy to pin down, were anyone to look for them.

A great deal of the junk mail that arrives in the average inbox falls into three main categories.

Some is pushing pharmaceuticals designed to allay the fear of being inadequate or overweight. Some dangles the prospect of unsecured loans and mortgages before those who are already crushed by the weight of a credit burden they have acquired through gullibility and some attempts to persuade would-be entrepreneurs that telling others how to sit around telling others how to make money on the Internet is some kind of fulfilling career.

If I had a male member, and were I to have responded to just a fraction of the mail received with offers of help in lengthening it, I could probably have increased it's length sufficiently to tie a knot around the planet earth by now!

Many regular users of the Internet whose inboxes haven't already filtered it out unseen, have learned to recognise and delete junk mail without opening it, so that it merely annoys but doesn't hit home anyway.

If only the people who send out all that unsolicited, badly-written and totally un-targeted trash were to apply their energies to doing almost anything intelliegent properly online, they would probably make more money in an interesting way than they do whilst occupied in what must be the most tedious and mind-numbing 'work' of all time.

What the spimmers and spammers mainly seem to succeed in doing is putting some people off taking the Internet as seriously as they might and convincing others that the it is an underworld from which they would be safest staying away.

If people are actually making money from spim and spam, it should be seized just as the proceeds of any other organised crime are seized.

[linnetwoods]

Spim, spam, spin...

That someone has finally been caught, out of the many who have helped to contribute to the misery of millions as we wade through our inboxes full of trash, can only be a good thing.

What might amaze some people is that the 'Internet Marketeers' who teach people how to bombard others with pointless and mainly ineffective emails, through 'courses' and 'seminars', 'books' and 'tutorials', are not also brought to book, being pretty easy to pin down, were anyone to look for them.

A great deal of the junk mail that arrives in the average inbox falls into three main categories.

Some is pushing pharmaceuticals designed to allay the fear of being inadequate or overweight. Some dangles the prospect of unsecured loans and mortgages before those who are already crushed by the weight of a credit burden they have acquired through gullibility and some attempts to persuade would-be entrepreneurs that telling others how to sit around telling others how to make money on the Internet is some kind of fulfilling career.

If I had a male member, and were I to have responded to just a fraction of the mail received with offers of help in lengthening it, I could probably have increased it's length sufficiently to tie a knot around the planet earth by now!

Many regular users of the Internet whose inboxes haven't already filtered it out unseen, have learned to recognise and delete junk mail without opening it, so that it merely annoys but doesn't hit home anyway.

If only the people who send out all that unsolicited, badly-written and totally un-targeted trash were to apply their energies to doing almost anything intelliegent properly online, they would probably make more money in an interesting way than they do whilst occupied in what must be the most tedious and mind-numbing 'work' of all time.

What the spimmers and spammers mainly seem to succeed in doing is putting some people off taking the Internet as seriously as they might and convincing others that the it is an underworld from which they would be safest staying away.

If people are actually making money from spim and spam, it should be seized just as the proceeds of any other organised crime are seized.

[linnetwoods]

Well, while we're at it...

Let's tolerate everything intolerable. Let's accept the deforestation of the entire planet so that we have a lack of breathable air to worry about sometime very soon - that'll take our minds off the junk mail...

Let's tolerate mugging - hey those poor guys have got to make a living haven't they?

Should we tolerate paedophilia because those guys can't help their repugnant proclivities?

Would you draw the line anywhere? For goodness sake! Let's stop talking about people's right to make each others' lives a misery and start talking about their responsibility to one another.

[linnetwoods]

Well, while we're at it...

Let's tolerate everything intolerable. Let's accept the deforestation of the entire planet so that we have a lack of breathable air to worry about sometime very soon - that'll take our minds off the junk mail...

Let's tolerate mugging - hey those poor guys have got to make a living haven't they?

Should we tolerate paedophilia because those guys can't help their repugnant proclivities?

Would you draw the line anywhere? For goodness sake! Let's stop talking about people's right to make each others' lives a misery and start talking about their responsibility to one another.