Evil Spam

Here's a long article on the escalating spam wars. Says the volume of spam has doubled in the last six months, and now makes up 40 percent of e-mail traffic.

"We're seeing a slow degradation of the medium," said Jason Catlett, a computer scientist and founder of Junkbusters Corp., an anti-spam and privacy advocacy group. "Many people don't get on the Internet or abandon it because they don't like the trash that they see." …

Marketers now say that while they prefer technological solutions, a national law would be helpful and more effective than a patchwork of state regulations that vary in strength and approach.

Microsoft, AOL, Verizon Communications Inc., EarthLink and other Internet providers also are aggressively pushing for national legislation…

"Consumers are choking on spam, and it is clogging the arteries of the Internet," [the U.S. Commerce Department's Bruce P. Mehlmanhe] said. "Personally, I believe we need to find ways to help consumers protect themselves . . . provided they would be effective, have minimal impact on innovation and preserve consumer choice. The best anti-spam solutions may well be technologically based and market-driven."