[geeks] New Spam Disclaimer

[Mike Meredith]

On Sunday 16 June 2002 15:59, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
> Which is funny since:
>   1) Unless I've been asleep for a really long time, Texas is not
> part of the UK.
>   2) This was at my .edu address, and said .edu is also in Texas.

ROFL

I've been receiving US-specific spam to an explicitly non-US address
since before I was directly connected to the Internet (JANET had a mail
gateway to the Internet before it converted to IP). I even received a
copy of the first ever spam ... the green card spam (or am I
perpetuating an UL?).

> Now, the disclaimer:
>
> It's rather interesting that someone spewing crap about legality
> wouldn't know the laws on distributing computer viruses.  Knowingly
> distributing a computer virus (and their "taken steps" could simply
> mean "held a meeting") is illegal regardless of any disclaimer.

I think that the current view is that in the UK, those silly disclaimers
aren't worth the paper they're written on (so don't print it out). I'm
impressed that you're familiar with the UK's Computer Misuse Act though
:)

> that spammers were the scum of the earth.  Now, lawyers who spam?  No
> contest.

I take it you haven't met spammers who forge reply addresses with valid
domains/addresses yet? They make the usualy form of spammer look
positively saintly.

(I deal with abuse at port.ac.uk which is a domain that has been used by
US-based spammers)