Nov 30 2004

Screensaver tackles spam websites

Published by at 12:35 pm under General

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In this BBC article: BBC NEWS | Technology | Screensaver tackles spam websites, Lycos is reported releasing a screensaver that “allows users to fight back” against the spammers. The screensaver, whilst running, continuously requests data from known “Spam” sites, effectively increasing their bandwidth costs and driving them out of business.

Correct me if I’m wrong but that sounds pretty much like a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack.

If the screensavers were directed at Amazon or Microsoft I’m pretty sure that Lycos would be hauled up in court before anyone had the chance to download it…. so why can they get away with directing the attack at a site that someone has dubbed as being a “spam” site?

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