Interesting that Robert Alan Soloway has three names, just like serial killers or assassins. It’s tempting to group spam kings with those other two professions; while the nature of the one may be far less heinous in some ways than the other two, the one makes up the difference with volume.

I heard people at the office talking about this arrest, in fact, mentioning reports that people might see a drop in the amount of spam they receive since this guy was arrested. I didn’t believe it when I heard it, and that belief is now confirmed. There are just too many spammers out there, and like cockroaches, there are always more where that came from. There will always be more willing to fill the vacuum. After all, it was two years ago that the first big spam arrest was made, sending the creep to jail for nine years (his conviction was upheld), but spam did not ebb then, either.

That does not, of course, mean that we should not go to the trouble and expense of catching these guys, jailing them, and stripping them of all their assets and possessions. On the contrary, we need some form of payback, especially because of the fact that arresting them does not stop spam. I would suggest adding the touch of stripping them naked and forcing them to tap dance in front of large audiences armed with rotting vegetables and water balloons filled with noxious liquids, three times daily. I am pretty sure that this would not constitute cruel and unusual punishment considering their crimes, and there would be not trouble filling the auditorium on a regular basis, and we’d probably get some members of the ACLU and Amnesty International in the crowds.