The original Usenet spammers: Where are they now?

[giza]

I am referring to Lawrence Canter and Martha Siegel, also known as the Green Card spammers.

Back in 1994, they got an Internet account with a company called "Internet Direct" and proceeded to spam nearly 6,000 newsgroups on Usenet. It was the first time that anyone had dared send commercial spam across Usenet.

A virtual riot followed, and their ISP's mailserver fell over under the load of emailed complaints. 15 times. From the article:

Jeff Wheelhouse, sysadmin for Internet Direct, was soon bombed into oblivion by world-wide complaints. He told the NY Times this caused Internet Direct computers to crash at least 15 times -- "that's when we stopped counting." Internet Direct terminated the lawyers' account, making it clear it doesn't oppose advertising, just spamming. Canter, Siegel, and two other lawyers appeared at Internet Direct offices, threatening to sue for $250,000 unless their account was reinstated. Internet Direct refused. Nothing came of the C&S threats.

So what happened to Canter and Siegel? They divorced in 1996. Canter was permanently disbarred in the state of Tennessee in 1997. Martha Siegel apparently passed away in 2000. Today, Canter has transitioned into computer programming and reportedly hasn't sent spam in years.

And what of Jeff Wheelhouse, who is pretty much the original spamfighter? It turns out that he runs my webhost.

The mind boggles.

Comments

[simbab.livejournal.com]

It's amazing how much the Internet has changed in the twenty short years it has allowed commercial traffic. While on the one hand commercial traffic has allowed it to grow at a phenomenal pace, the significant downside is...well, the commercialization and cheapening of content, as well as a loss of the global sense of community that existed not but ten years ago.

I'm torn as to whether I'd prefer the Internet of 1987 or 2007. 300 baud modems are definitely not cool but then again I have no use for stuff like 99% of YouTube's content or digg.com.

[scs-11.livejournal.com]

Wow. The guy is still unrepentant and would do it again in the same circumstances.

Or to be briefer: still a dick.

[andrew7782.livejournal.com]

I went to your webhost's site, and for their prices running my own websites that'd be a pretty good deal. I'd definitely move to it if I didn't have a three quarters of a year left with our current host and weren't already hosting like four other people's sites. My own domains would cost me barely a few dollars a year.

[silverscalenaga.livejournal.com]

http://myspace-460.vo.llnwd.net/01243/06/45/1243105460_l.jpg