Fighting Back Against Spam

Last November, Lycos Europe launched a web service called ‘Make Love, Not Spam‘ which allowed visitors to download a unique screen saver. The goal was to serve a little payback in unwanted traffic to the web sites promoted in spam email messages. The screen saver happily sent endless requests to these servers, slowing their ability to churn out their unwanted messages. Criticized for using tactics of the sort more often employed by hackers and others who might launch such a denial of service attack, Lycos shut down the service.

I’m glad to see that creative efforts to fight back aggressively agains spam are being explored and implemented. Even if this particular approach has crossed the line somewhere (where was the ‘Make Love’ part of this, on the screen saver?), I applaud Lyco Europe for trying to do something, and hope they’ll keep at it. Fighting spammers in court, as was successfully done recently in Virginia, is great, but it’s only one weapon in the fight against spam. And global fight that it is, won’t always be an available option.

The real problem will never be solved. Spam only works because people are stupid, and it only takes a few boneheads who think that cheap VIAKAGARA is only a click away to force those of us who know better to pay the price for their ignorance in the spam we receive as a result. Idiots.

Anti-spam screensaver scrapped
BBC, 12/6/04

UPDATE: Slashdot reports that a trojan horse virus is being distributed under the false promise that it is the installer of the Lycos Anti-Spam screensaver. Jeesh… you really just can’t win for trying can you.