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New! The BBC and The Times both link to this campaign.
Next month we will have the 12th anniversary of the first spam. Why is it still a problem? We also note that Bill Gates said we would have fixed the problem by now and according to the article on the BBC site we'd have it fixed within 2 years of 24th January 2004. The clock is ticking, and time's nearly up for Bill Gates and Microsoft. What are they, or indeed anyone else, actually doing these days and it's it about time we had some action?
When we look back at the great advances of 2005, such as Google and Skype, we should also reflect on one notable failure. In fact it's been a notable failure every year since 1994 and that is dealing with spam. Let's hope this petition goes some way to ensuring 2006 isn't another year where we allow the volume of spam to increase again.
Since the first commercial spam in March 1994, a large number of advances have been made on the Internet. We draw your attention to these here and ask if all this can be achieved, why is spam now accounting for over 90% of email and costing $40 billion a year to deal with it? Surely we can do better than this. If you think so, please sign The Spam Petition.
Let's put this in context.
1969: First node established on what was to become the Internet
1972: First email program
1979: Usenet is launched, allowing online group discussions
1984: Over 1000 machines on the Internet
1987: Over 10,000 machines on the Internet
1989: Over 100,000 machines on the Internet
1989: WWW Invented
1990: First browser
1991: WWW released
1993
24 years after the first Internet connection, and 19 years after the first E-mail program, this
marks the last year where commercial spam was not a problem (because there wasn't any)
In the same approximate time frame since the first spam, the following technological advances have occurred online
April 1994: Commercial Spam becomes a problem.
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
Spam is a problem
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
Spam is a problem. Phishing term used for the first time.
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
Spam is a problem
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
Spam is a growing problem
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
Spam is a growing problem
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
Spam is still a growing problem
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
Spam is still a growing problem
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
Spam is still a growing problem; accounting for about a quarter of all emails
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
Spam is still a growing problem; accounting for more than half of all email.
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
Spam is still a growing problem; accounting for about 2/3 of all email
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
Spam is today still a growing problem; accounting for about 90% of all email. An estimated $40 billion is spent per year dealing with the problem.
Want this to stop? please sign The Spam Petition.
We believe that as a minimum, like browsers, search engines and most webmail, the Internet community should have free access to a basic server side spam filtering service that works. This doesn't preclude any company making a commercial service out of add-ons.
We also believe that like Google, Skype and iTunes, the quickest way forward is to come up with a superior technology and give it away for free. Any commercial spin offs would be for add ons, enhanced services and so on. In the meantime, legal action will help and we refer you to the spam legal action site. Legal action is useful, but clearly only where there is relevant legislation. There is a risk that if we only use legal action that spammers will simply use spam-friendly countries instead.
If you support all this, please sign The Spam Petition.. We also have an associated spam petition competition.