May 27, 2003
The Best Email Is Less Email... Let's take five with Moira Gunn. This is "Five Minutes".
"Computer trespass" - now there's a term I liked instantly. According to a new Virginia statute, it's when any person uses "a computer or computer network without authority," and a "person is 'without authority' when he has no right or permission of the owner to use a computer, or he uses a computer or computer network in a manner exceeding such right or permission."
Now, you know what they're talking here, don't you? That irritating bane of the Internet: Spam, as well as the people who generate it.
I hate spam, and I hate it for a hundred reasons: It junks up networks and junks up computers. It takes my attention, it has no redeeming social value, and I can't believe it provides any real commercial advantage. It's just a plain waste of time and resources, and it's doubly infuriating since the people who create it appear to suffer absolutely no consequences.
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Part of the problem is that there aren't any natural constraints to keep spammers in line. If spam were the junk mail we find in our mailboxes, at least whoever generated it would have to pay for printing and mailing. Not so with spam. Set up spamming programs, and they just do their own thing, while the spammer goes out and sits in the sun.
Little wonder, easily half of our email is spam. And unfortunately, it's becoming even cheaper to produce. The spammers have now figured out how to corral other people's computers into it sending out, and the people who own these hijacked computers don't even know about the spam their computers are generating. You see, all a spammer needs to do is find an unprotected computer out there on the Internet - something called a "proxy server," of which there are hundreds of thousands, is a wonderful target of opportunity. Then they transfer down their spamming program with loads of email addresses, and start emailing away.
Yes, the term "computer trespass" absolutely sums it up.
There are several aspects of the new Virginia legislation that I find interesting. First of all, the state of Virginia is the home of America Online, the world's largest Internet Service Provider, in addition to loads of other computer networks. It's certainly arguable that more email flows through Virginia than any other place on earth, so this is a good place to focus attention.
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While plenty of states have spam laws, Virginia is the first state to make spam a Class 6 felony. Although many spammers don't even live in the United States, a misdemeanor is just a misdemeanor. If Virginia can get its hands on these critters, there are serious downsides.
Writing good legislation is always trickier then it seems in those "There oughta be a law" conversations floating around the cracker barrel, but writing good laws in the face of a fast changing technology is challenge that's unprecedented. The Virginia law clearly recognizes this situation, when it states "the court may, in its discretion, conduct all legal proceedings in such a way as to protect the secrecy and security of the" technology "involved in order to prevent possible recurrence of ... a similar act by another person."
I'm glad to see they don't trust these spammers, as well they shouldn't.
I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.
