Law Barring Junk E-Mail Allows a Flood Instead, from the NY Times
Since the Can Spam Act went into effect in January 2004, unsolicited junk e-mail on the Internet has come to total perhaps 80 percent or more of all e-mail sent, according to most measures. That is up from 50 percent to 60 percent of all e-mail before the law went into effect.
How do you force a profitable business to become a cost-prohibitive business? Clearly legislation and lawsuits aren’t working, at least not yet. Can a profitable business be forced out of existence short of the economy changing? I don’t know enough economics to answer this question for myself. Though this does seem to more than slightly resemble the “war” on drugs, one of those wars that can’t be won. As long as someone’s buying, someone will be selling.