Spam spam spam spam

For people interested in the regulation of spam, this post from Ethan Preston is an interesting discussion of how blacklists might or might not work to reduce that horrible scourge. In particular, Ethan talks about the way that trying to control spam might mean blacklisting entire countries (hmmmm, the idea of blacklisting communications from China? I'm not quite so sure).

At any rate, if you're interested in this stuff, it also ties in with some work by Joel Reidenberg, who has been exploring the technologies that allow balkinisation of the net for some time: see this abstract on SSRN for his latest paper on the issue. A taste:

'The current technology of the Internet creates ambiguity for sovereign territory because network boundaries intersect and transcend national borders. In this environment, jurisdiction over activities on the Internet has become a battleground for the struggle to establish the rule of law in the Information Society. This essay argues first that the initial wave of cases seeking to deny jurisdiction, choice of law and enforcement to states where users and victims are located constitutes a type of 'denial of service' attack against the legal system. In effect, the defenders of hate, lies, drugs, sex, gambling and stolen music use technologically based arguments to deny the applicability of rules of law interdicting their behavior. The essay next shows that innovations in information technology will undermine the technological assault on state jurisdiction. … the essay argues that the exercise of state power through assertions of jurisdiction can and should be used to advance the development of more granular technologies and new service markets for legal compliance. Technologies should be available to enable Internet participants to respect the rule of law in states where their Internet activities reach. Assertions of state jurisdiction and electronic enforcement are likely to advance this public policy.