Microsoft Battling To Shape Spam Legislation

from the which-side-are-they-on? dept

Back when Microsoft announced that they were suing 15 spammers (even if they went after some people incorrectly) there were a number of articles about how Microsoft was fighting on both sides of the spam battle. They were suing spammers on one side - making for a huge publicity kick - but at the same time they were fighting (very hard) against various anti-spam legislation. The Washington Post is chronicling a few of Microsoft's lobbying efforts to stop anti-spam legislation from getting passed. Microsoft's defense appears to be their belief that spammers will misuse any "do-not-spam list" as the basis for more spam. They might have a very good point. While the article shrugs this idea off, it is likely that any such spam list will be misused by spammers - and could lead to even worse spam problems. While it may sound like a good idea to pass anti-spam legislation, if it's going to make the problem worse it makes sense to oppose it - even if the soundbites ("Microsoft blocks anti-spam legislation") sound bad.

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