thechangelab.com

of SPAM and the cheap PC…

Every once in a while, there’s a law that has the potential to bring the power of old PCs to the fore. Unfortunately, in this case, we’re talking about spam.

Most of the time, we’re worried about how our castoffs are being recycled for parts in the so-called Third World. People being made to wallow in toxic filth, as they harvest rare metals from it.

Now try imaging some industrious individuals actually using those castoffs. Just install a pirated copy of Windows or some open source OS? Now all they need is a monitor, keyboard, mouse, Internet connection and…

Well, these individuals also happen to be quite intelligent. They’re smart enough to be able to work with what they already have. They’re also smart enough to know where money can be made. For some, there’s “organized crime.” Buying, selling and bartering lots of credit card numbers, and other stolen personal information. But for others, the easier path appears to be SPAM.

Check out what ars technica has to say, in their comment on a Guardian article.

Now about this law. Imagine a poorly written law intended to do good. How many are there? Too many to remember? slashdot has a story on the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act. A law intended to fight spam has apparently been used by a spammer against a spamfighter.

Now just imagine, this spammer probably couldn’t do what they do if they didn’t have the money to “harvest” cheap tech labour from the “Third World.”

Disgusting? Yes. Avoidable? Probably not. Let’s just hope these guys won’t be clustering any time soon..

– toshiya