Re:Follow the Money (Score 1)

It's a very sensible and obvious idea, and in fact several startup companies have tried it. For example, Habeas used to identify and sue the spammers that forged their trademarked header fields. They even purchased spamvertised products in order to create a paper trail.

But the economics of it simply didn't work out. Many of the parties that were identified were small business with no deep pockets. The ones big enough to be worth suing would settle out of court, and disappear and resurface somewhere else. Bottom line was it cost way more money to find the spam sources than could ever be recovered by civil damage awards.

But that's civil court. You suggested making spamvertising a criminal act, which would allow the taxpapers to pay for following the paper trail. I honestly think if Congress had done that two years ago, and gave the FTC funds to investigate and prosecute, it might have been effective.

But I think it's too late now. The majority of spam today is pushing products that are already illegal. Both the spammers and the sellers are criminals, even if they weren't spamming. New laws might make prosecutions a little easier, but they aren't going to be a deterrent.

Finally, I note that many forms of spamvertising are already illegal under CAN-SPAM; you can hold the seller responsible. We all know how effective that's been. :-(