The key point that many missed is that because the FBI is overloaded with complaints like this, legitimate DoS attacks go uninvestigated and unprosecuted. Normally, Eric (the original poster of the smurfing problem), would go to the FBI for help in tracking down and prosecuting the perpetrator. But some have noticed lately that they aren't getting much help in DoS cases. I'm just explaining why. Further, I hope it should be clear that spam non-combatants have to get involved to stop the chaos, and enforce federal laws on spammers and anti-spammers, or suffer further lack of police response on real crimes. We are the ones who are damaged, when real crimes against us aren't prosecuted and real crimminals aren't punished. Thats what spam has to do with smurfing.
all the involved parties. Since no one is getting physically injured and no money is being stolen, I think they are just waiting to see what
Who says no money is being stolen?
Every time a UCE is delivered to my server, someone out there has stolen resources from me. Resources *are* money.
They are resources you have sold to your customers. You can't snoop what your customers do with the resources. If you doubt this, read first my spampolicy, then buy "Firewalls and Internet Security", and "Unix System Security", read what they say, and then discuss the laws with your lawyer.
Everytime a network is smurfed, network resources have been stolen.
It's just like as if someone out there set up an auto-dialer to tie up a businesses fax machine, or busy up all their lines.
Intent is a key issue. If they are doing it to deny services, they are breaking the law. If you have a ton of users all trying to dial in, they are not breaking the law; you sold them accounts. People actually trying to sell products via email are not trying to deny services. They are not breaking the law, at least, not by existing. But the FBI is swamped with these sort of complaints. They aren't buying them. And they are overlooking legitimate complaints because of it.
Relays aren't the only problem. The problem is that SPAM is an acceptable form of advertising in the eyes of the US Government (and others).
Thats a political issue. Good luck, and have fun storming the castle. But when you take the step from advocacy to actions you are violating the law in almost every case. You can advocate anything, but you can't go tearing down buildings, or in this case, intercepting communications. Even if anti-spam laws are passed, you won't be able to monitor packets or users to detect violations of the law, any more than the phone company can listen in on your calls to make sure you aren't placing illegal bets. --Dean ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Plain Aviation, Inc dean@av8.com LAN/WAN/UNIX/NT/TCPIP http://www.av8.com ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++