From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu From: "Douglas A. Gwyn" Message-ID: <3F784A92.84FDE48B@null.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: , Subject: Re: SPAM: Re: [9fans] spam rejection after reception does have limits Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 15:21:51 +0000 Topicbox-Message-UUID: 55920de0-eacc-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 Charles Forsyth wrote: > but how can we know that that > detection and prosecution didn't deter > some, perhaps even quite a few, from attempting it? The problem is, it just drives the worst offenders deeper into the underground. Drug trafficking and terrorism have been targets of detection and prosecution, and overall this appears to have made those problems worse, in some ways, than they might otherwise have been. Of course that's a judgment call, and there is no way to perform the experiment to find out for sure. I would prefer to see development of a social climate in which it is so universally acknowledged that such attacks are not acceptable that ordinary people take steps to stop it when they detect it, instead of delegating the problem to government agents.