ok, I sat down and figured out how much I should charge to have to deal with spam. below is a sample letter I am sending to the 6 biggest offenders. (I'll use SBC communications as they are the biggest). what I would like is some help from an attorney thats conversant with the law as it relates to computers and the internet here in the US. Also, I have virtually no money to pay a retainer, but am willing to share in any proceeds that are collected (if any). The reason for this: I spend upwards of 2 hours per day culling all my spam, reporting it to spamcop, confirming the reports and repeating the process. last month alone I processed over 1296 spams this way (thats 60 hours last month I spent on this). if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know (if anyone here works for a company that has a "net lawyer" available and is willing to help out, also let me know!). Mage here is that letter... ********** sbc liability letter.txt *************** 22 December 2003 to: SBC Communications Inc. 175 E. Houston P.O. box 2933 San Antonio, TX From: , Network Administrator
Phoenix, Arizona 85033 Sir, This is to inform you that your corporation is now liable for the sum of $14,140.28* for my time required to deal with the UCE/SPAM (herein known as "spam") originating from your network and subscriber base and improperly allowed transmittal by you. The originating networks involved are: 1. pacbell.net 2. swbell.net 3. ameritech.net all of which are owned by your firm (as referenced in: http://http://www.sbc.com/sbc_privacy_policy/0,,9,00.html ) or carry the SBC logo. Explanation: In November of 2003, I received (and reported) 1,296 pieces of spam at a cost to me of $3.34 per minute in lost productivity. Your firm respresents 2.16049% (or 28 actual pieces) of the received total spam. The calculation of the $3.34 per minute is a fairly simple one. it is based on the "labored rate per hour" of $200 divided by 60 (number of minutes). The figure arrived at above uses this formula: cost per minute multiplied by actual time (in this case, it takes 1 minute and 30 seconds to process each spam from reception in my inbox through reporting to delivery confirmation) and then multiplied again by the number of spams originating from your customer base. Also included is the remedy from 47 USC 227 (a)(2)(b) which stipulates that I can charge up to $500 per each spam (as my telephone and cable internet are integrated services, this does apply) Thus: 3.34 * 1.5 (1 minute 30 seconds) * + ($500 * actual spams) = $total amount owed hence: 3.34 * 1.5 * 16 + (500 * 16) = $8,080.16 for pacbell orginated e-mails 3.34 * 1.5 * 6 + (500 * 6) = 3,030.06 for swbell.net originated e-mails 3.34 * 1.5 * 6 + (500 * 6) = 3,030.06 for ameritech.net originated e-mails Now, this may seem like a lot, but if you account for the costs your firm has already incurred as a result of all the spam being sent, such as; 1. bandwidth overutilization charges from your upstream provider 2. service downtime due to overloaded mail servers 3. customer support cost to handle all the calls that are the result of spam activities 4. lost productivity as a result of spam activities. This can result in millions in lost revenue over the course of a year. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: 1. secure your network by only allowing mail to be sent through your e-mail servers instead of directly from customer boxes to anywhere on the net (this will eliminate 90% of the spam problem) 2. exercise your AUP and TOS vigilantly 3. respond to complaints immediately and in a specific manner. I hope this will help you to understand that spam is not a victimless or costless action. It is by definition a Denial of Service attack against the recipients (such as I) and as such, may fall under the terms of; The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Information Infrastructure Protection Act of 1996, Cyber Security Enhancement Act of 2002, sections 225 and 896 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, 18 U.S.C. § 1029 - Fraud and Related Activity in Connection with Access Devices, 18 U.S.C. § 1030 - Fraud and Related Activity in Connection with Computers, 18 U.S.C. § 1362. Communication Lines, Stations, or Systems, and others. Also, the "attractive nuisance" of these "open proxies" may be dealt with also by the above (and other related statutes). Lastly, the volume of spam has not diminished since I started reporting. This has all the appearance of a failure on your part to enforce those policies (as published on your website). In essence, this has the appearance that your firm is in collusion with the "spam vendors" or may appear to be an accessory during the fact. Thus, I request that you exercise immediately all due effort to minimize or eliminate this problem. This does not, however, release you from your current liability to me (as stated above). However, a concerted effort to stop future spam may substantially reduce future liabilities. Please forward the above stated amount immediately via corporate check or certified check/money order. Failure to repond will result in legal action to recover this liability. Cordially,