CAN-SPAM -- One Year Later

Today, this news item appeared from an email security firm:

On One-Year Anniversary of CAN-SPAM Act, MX Logic Reports 97 Percent of 2004 Spam Failed to Comply with the Law; Spam, Other Email Threats Will Continue to Increase in 2005

The group acknowledges that the US CAN-SPAM act has created awareness of the email spam problem and has provided the basis for new legal action against spammers in the US, but contends that the law has had "no meaningful impact on the unrelenting flow of spam that continues to clog the Internet and plague inboxes," according to MX Logic's CTO Scott Chasin.

MX Logic's press release lays out some interesting predictions for 2005, including an increase in "spam without economic profit," such as propaganda from political groups, terrorists and hate groups.

As someone who has been using email as a marketing tool since 1995 and has been writing about the email spam problem since 1996, I have serious doubts about the long-term efficacy of any US anti-spam law, whether it's the flimsy CAN-SPAM effort or something stronger.

I'm pretty sure that the fight against email spam is going to have to continue as long as people continue to use email to communicate. It seems evident that spam is profitable for somebody, although nearly any business would be stupid to try it. And as long as it is profitable for somebody, somebody's going to keep doing it.

(Here's an article I wrote awhile back, attempting to give a definition of "spam." Basically my thinking these days is that your email is spam if the recipient thinks it is.)

A next-generation Internet might be able to have better spam controls built into it, but it's going to be a long time before an Internet like that will be available to most users, if ever.

The best thing for now is for companies to continue to develop better and better technological solutions to combat unwanted email. They're going to have to, because every time you build a higher wall, the bad guys are going to build a taller ladder.

I've never much liked client-based spam filters such as anti-spam software or the filtering capabilities that come with Outlook. But I do like Cloudmark's SafetyBar (formerly SpamNet), which I've been using for 3-4 years now. It's not really an anti-spam software program, although you do have to download software. The real power of it is that it's a network of over a million users who collectively identify and filter spam. It's not perfect and has its drawbacks, but I find that SafetyBar eliminates 95% or more of spam from my inbox -- not too bad.

AB -- 1/3/05

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Tracked on January 7, 2005 6:01 PM

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