What is Digg?36 Comments
- Marmot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Tenseki, the difference between spam and legitimate advertising is in who picks up the tab for distributing the message.
In the case of legitimate advertising, the ad is paid for by the company doing the advertising. This covers the expense of displaying the message. A TV network is expensive to operate. Billboards cost money to operate (everything from property lease / tax payments, all the way to electricity to light it up at night). In other words, the person who provides the necessary infrastructure is compensated for their costs in displaying the ad.
With spam, it's a different story. The cost of distributing spam is borne by your ISP, or whoever operates your mail server. If 50% of email is spam, then that means your mail server needs to be twice as "big" as it would otherwise have to be. Who pays for the extra capacity? (e.g. storage, bandwidth, servers)? Not the spammers. You do. Servers, bandwidth and storage cost money, and since your ISP isn't collecting a dime from the spammer, they have no choice but to pass the costs on to you.
One other thing -- legitimate advertisers do not need to circumvent security or use questionable tactics in order to get the message out. Spammers are known for exploiting open relays, mail server flaws, and even using botnets or hacked servers. Why can't they just ask permission? Because that would cost money, and that would break the economics of spam.
I'm no fan of advertising, but at least they operate within the law. Say what you want about legitimate advertisers--at least they stop short of trespassing. - EmmEff, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'll believe he's effectively shutdown when I see a decrease in spam. I've never seen a decrease yet despite several spammers caught in recent months.
- SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1dont blame the spammers. blame the millions of stupid people in america. if everyone just deleted their spam and didnt buy anything from it then spamming would be unprofitable and would end on its own. if you have ever bought anything from spam then the spam epidemic is YOUR fault, not the guy who was smart enough to take advantage of the idiocy of millions. maybe they should drop the "war on drugs" thing and spend the money teaching schoolchildren not to buy anything from spam. if nobody buys what they're spamming they wont waste their time with it anymore. better yet, get thunderbird and correctly configure your spam filters. you wont see it anymore so it wont matter.
- parker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1there was a fantastic "the daily show with jon stewart" interview with this guy a year or so back if you can find it. they broadcast what was supposedly this guy's personal email address and phone number.
- 5blocksfree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For as much as everyone hates spam, I sure hope this guy actually broke some laws, because if he didn't, we may have a lot more than spam to worry about.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Last year when 4 hurricanes hit Florida, the amount of spam traffic decreased significantly because the spam bastards were either evacuated or they lost power. Since I live in Florida, I'd rather see the pricks go to jail than risk losing everything I have. Me, me, me, everything's about me.
- gamer31, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0that guy lived near me
- handsomehansen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0good riddance.
- culebra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Good for him.
- Mark_H, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I agree...and it's surprising people didn't independently force it on him when they were told his address, like they did to that Russian guy...
- Assiez, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0about time.
- F00b4r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Waste of what, though? Bandwidth, even for many thousands of emails, is going to be cheap.
They just get a massmail server, leave it on and sending, and wait. If 1% of recipients buy, it's worth it. - Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0How can spam actually make money? Are there people actually stupid enough to actually buy ANYTHING from it? If I were a legitimate company, I'd stay far, FAR away from spam, so as not to tarnish my reputation... Spam has got to be a waste of money for companies.
Someone should be sending HIM a *****-lot of spam. - Zeuser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The only thing this guy did was exploit a vulnerability in the internet and in people.
And although it's revolting to have to deal with the spammers, face it... that's capitalism and democracy for you! You want the right to speak? then you have to tolerate the ones who say what you don't want to hear.
The moment they came up with the anti-spam law Ralsky should've taken a hint that his days were numbered and moved on.
I guess Ralsky will now join the ranks of Bill Gates & co. which are evil at the core but are really only masters at exploiting the vulnerabilities of our western society. - Dahak2150, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Where can I find this "Do not spam" list?
- modpancake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'd love to see that Daily Show clip... anyone have a link or something?
- Kupop, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I believe I read about him before. Someone found his address. Soon Mr. Alan was being harassed by telemarketers and spam and junk mail signed up to him by anti spam groups.
- Amadeus2490, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0::Final Fantasy battle victory music plays::
I don't know if it's just me, but I noticed that I hardly, if ever, get spam regarding Mortgages, or prescription drugs anymore. It seems to be just pornographic advertisements.
So does that mean they're going to start raiding online porn studios now? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0String him up!
- aiiee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I believe his home address was outed on Slashdot ( can I say slashdot here ?:)) Hilarity did ensue :) Ralsky went crying to the press about how he couldn't live a normal life any more with all the paper junk mail piling up outside his front door. good times good times:)
- BxBoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Victory for the Good Guys!!
- kohno214, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Die scum!
- fragmaster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0From my understanding the average spammer makes about 1 sale per million e-mails. Assuming he made $10 profit off of each item sold and continually pumps out 100,000,000 e-mails a day he would be making $365,000 a year.
- spacemanspork, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0> How can spam actually make money? Are there people actually stupid enough
> to actually buy ANYTHING from it? If I were a legitimate company, I'd stay
> far, FAR away from spam, so as not to tarnish my reputation... Spam has
> got to be a waste of money for companies.
> Someone should be sending HIM a *****-lot of spam.
> posted by Zippo (0)
Yes, people are stupid enough to buy from spam. There was an article a while back about this guy who constantly bought from spam emails. He did get his stuff though. Whether or not they worked, he bought it.
I always wondered that too. I mean who the heck would buy prescription drugs from an email that spells it wrong and in 133t speek with a fake news article posted after it? But the answer is out of the millions of people he spams, enough do. - TVRfreak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I say we put the guy in stocks and take him to every IT conference in America ,and have every sysadmin there publicly throw rotten fruit at him! After all that lock him up with the rest of the terrorists at that great US "bay" resort they all stay in now.
SPAMMERS ARE INTERNET TERRORISTS! - Tr176, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I hope they give him electroshock on his balls the filthy man-whore!
- fore1337, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0man it's funny how no authorities were even interested in stopping spam, until after the large corporations began claiming financial losses due to it.
none of these raids have anything to do with the phenomenal grass roots efforts layed out by the community. - billizm, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Shut his ass down!
- Oriole27, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0This bastard deserves the death penalty!
- CryingWolf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Capitalism at it's finest.
- vhunterk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Why didn't they just shoot him...
- spin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I think I speak for everyone when i wish this guy the worst ass cancer possible.
- wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I hope he gets gang raped in jail.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0send him to the chair...burn the bitch a bit
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