Not to put too fine a point on it, but KaZAA isn't an illegal product, blatant or otherwise. It is a product that is most frequently used to acheive illegal ends. There are, too, many legal uses of the FastTrack network, such as inedpendant music, free/open software, home-made artwork/movies, etc.

KaZAA merely allows a user to transfer files and doesn't apply filters or regulations to prevent piracy.

As for SPAM, it is somewhat analagous to KaZAA. E-mail is a medium used millions of times every day for legitimate use; personnal, commercial, etc. It is also being used for unsolicited advertising that doesn't otherwise violate any laws, but is a nuissance because the receiver didn't ask for it. It is also used to send unsolicited advertising that violates nearly every law of decency, morality and legality in most jurisdictions it enters.

The major striking difference between the two mediums is that one has to download, install, and configure a client in order to access the former, whereas the latter comes to you whether you whether you do anything or not. Demonstrated in so many cases where a user's ISP e-mail account, never used or checked, is innundated with SPAM. Or where a user signs up for Hotmail (or any Passport service, thereby giving them a Hotmail account) and subsequently receives boatloads of SPAM.

Not using KaZAA is simple enough to undertake. But not using e-mail is out of the question - I require that to function in my profession, and it bridges the gap between long distance family and friends with whom communication would be otherwise few and far between via snail-mail.

As for sender-pays; is that anthing like a postage stamp to send a letter? What would that do to legitimate mailing lists or large corporations who send bulk mail (solicited) to their employees and/or client base?

Much like the much touted tax on writable media, this would only have the effect of costing the legitimate users in the end, and becomes a question of "Does the end justify the means?"

If proper filtering techniques were employed, and easily accessable in all major mail clients and users were informed of how to use them (say, in a "Welcome to Client_X" initial mail message upon installation, a la Outlook Express), SPAM would come to a screeching halt. If mail were deleted as soon as it arrived, and if click-throughs stopped to an all-time low, we could reduce the 2% rate of return to lower than 0.5% and make SPAMmers rethink their business model.

This, of course, brings us back to the major crux of the problem. SPAM, like AIDS, is the most preventable epidemic to strike mankind. If users understood to delete SPAM, or possibly, at the most, report it to an authority (even if only their ISP), SPAMmers wouldn't be seeing returns high enough to warrant the time, effort, and expenditure.

No matter how you slice it, it all boils down to education. No technical or legal solution can ever 100% eliminate this problem.

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