Make Love, Not Spam

[Stonkwell Bogtrotter]

Screensaver tackles spam websites

Sites selling spam goods and services are being targeted

Net users are getting the chance to fight back against spam websites

Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail.

Lycos hopes will it make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out.

The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4051553.stm

Screensaver here: (fixed url)

http://makelovenotspam.com/intl/index.html

Edited November 29, 2004 by axious

[John S. Veteran]

Screensaver tackles spam websites 

Sites selling spam goods and services are being targeted

Net users are getting the chance to fight back against spam websites

Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail.

Lycos hopes will it make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out.

The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4051553.stm

Screensaver here:

http://makelovenotspam.com/intl

585008957[/snapback]

Even though I would love to participate in this I'm certain it will be shut down eventually. An attack is still an attack.

[mojomonkee]

neat... can't say i'll use it but i'm sure people that use screensavers will.

[finality]

Hahaha! Awesome.

[Colin-uk Veteran]

i thought DDoS attacks were illegal ?

but i guess its ok if the site is "bad" :rolleyes:

[islanq]

Technically this is legal I believe, especially since it targets spammers I believe if legal action is perused I believe they will have leniency toward the Lyco's creator. I believe however if it incorrectly target no spammers it may be perceived as a problem.

[Stonkwell Bogtrotter]

How it works:

[Stonkwell Bogtrotter]

How it works 2

[Stonkwell Bogtrotter]

What the screensaver looks like!

[rbet]

Go! :laugh:

[TheDogsBed]

Apologies if it's been posted already. I did a cursory search and didn't see it.

Those playful pups at Lycos have chosen a different route to fight spammers than the ones being posed by others.

The Make Love Not Spam screensaver, takes upto 4MB of data (per screensaver user), each 24 hours, from spammers sites to increase their bandwidth bills.

At the time of installing, the bandwidth taken back from spammers was standing at around 120GB, and increasing by around 3GB every five minutes. I figure with Neowin users behind it, that'll increase ten-fold. :)

Enjoy and be sure to pass it on to everyone you know. :)

[CAH]

I make love as often as possible ... any volunteers ? :shifty:

[TheDogsBed]

I try to, but I often need to reboot. :)

[+John Teacake MVC]

Yeah its a good idea but isnt it contradicting itself. The bandwidth saved from sending out all those spam e mail will instead be comming from users running this program.

[TheDogsBed]

Yeah its a good idea but isnt it contradicting itself. The bandwidth saved from sending out all those spam e mail will instead be comming from users running this program.

585009187[/snapback]

4MB per user? I think I can afford that.

[Keldyn]

It's a very clever idea. Annoy a spammer today!

[Stonkwell Bogtrotter]

Already posted here :D

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=250575

[Keldyn]

Thx. Threads Merged.

[Hankyone]

i posted this a while before :/

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=249784

[Aaron Veteran]

On the front page.

Thread Closed