Feds may turn to bounty hunters to catch spammers
FTC is studying concept and will report to Congress
By Marilyn Geewax
Cox News Service
Saturday, December 13, 2003
WASHINGTON -- Armed with a tough new anti-spam law, federal agents can begin hitting illegal spammers with heavy fines in 2004.
That is, if they can catch them. Unfortunately for law enforcement officers, the people who send out torrents of unwanted electronic messages can be very elusive, hiding behind false addresses and fake names.
But some experts believe help may be on the way: the new law requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to study the feasibility of using bounty hunters to track down outlaw spammers.
Supporters envision the day when armies of 18-year-olds will be transformed into a global posse, riding out over the Internet to help round up bad guys.
"It's a promising approach," said John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University's law school. "I do think that a bounty system can be part of an integrated solution" that would include traditional law enforcement and spam-filtering software.
The bounty-hunter idea was promoted this year primarily by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., who called upon Congress to allow individuals who identify and help locate spammers to receive at least 20 percent of any fines collected.
When Congress gave final approval to the legislation this month, it decided not to implement the program immediately. Instead, it ordered the FTC to take nine months to study the concept and report back.
FTC staff attorney Brian Huseman said the study may show the bounty-hunter proposal has serious drawbacks.
"It is hard to locate spammers, and it'd be very hard without subpoena power," he said.
Moreover, the costs of a bounty-hunter program may well exceed the benefits, he said. Instead of hiring well-trained enforcement agents, the FTC would be spending resources on maintaining a bounty system, and operating an appeals process to settle disputes over rewards, he said.
Mark Uncapher, senior vice president of the Information Technology Association of America, an industry group, also expressed skepticism. He pointed out that when it comes to tracking down spammers, Internet service providers "already spend a huge amount of time on this."
The possibility of capturing spammers without law enforcement powers seems remote, he said. "It's a very hard process because spammers are like cockroaches, they go away when the lights go on," Uncapher said.
Still, some experts say the bounty idea could work well enough to justify its costs and risks. Walter Janowski, a research director for Gartner Inc., a tech consulting firm based in Stamford, Conn., is among the optimists.
"Where this could be potentially valuable would be in motivating 'insiders' (such as) individuals working with or associated with violators, to turn in their associates," Janowski said.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/busin...pambounty.html
:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh Can you imagine? LMAO I think that's hilarious! The "war on spam" will be the same as the war on drugs... and we all know how successful that is.
