Microsoft Battling To Shape Spam Legislation
from the which-side-are-they-on? dept
Back when Microsoft announced that they were suing 15 spammers (even if they went after some people incorrectly) there were a number of articles about how Microsoft was fighting on both sides of the spam battle. They were suing spammers on one side - making for a huge publicity kick - but at the same time they were fighting (very hard) against various anti-spam legislation. The Washington Post is chronicling a few of Microsoft's lobbying efforts to stop anti-spam legislation from getting passed. Microsoft's defense appears to be their belief that spammers will misuse any "do-not-spam list" as the basis for more spam. They might have a very good point. While the article shrugs this idea off, it is likely that any such spam list will be misused by spammers - and could lead to even worse spam problems. While it may sound like a good idea to pass anti-spam legislation, if it's going to make the problem worse it makes sense to oppose it - even if the soundbites ("Microsoft blocks anti-spam legislation") sound bad.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Microsoft is right
Phillip.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]