Using Uncensored Communication Channels to Divert Spam Traffic

We offer a microeconomic model of the two-sided market for the dominant form of spam: bulk, unsolicited, and commercial advertising email. We adopt an incentive-centered design approach to develop a simple, feasible improvement to the current email system using an uncensored communication channel. Such a channel could be an email folder or account, to which properly tagged commercial solicitations are routed. We characterize the circumstances under which spammers would voluntarily move much of their spam into the open channel, leaving the traditional email channel dominated by person-to-person, non-spam mail. Our method follows from observing that there is a real demand for unsolicited commercial email, so that everyone can be made better off if a channel is provided for spammers to meet spamdemanders. As a bonus, the absence of filtering in an open channel restores to advertisers the incentive to make messages truthful, rather than to disguise them to avoid filters. We show that under certain conditions all email recipients are better off when an open channel is introduced. Only recipients wanting spam will use the open channel enjoying the less disguised messages, and for all recipients the satisfaction associated with desirable mail received increases, and dissatisfaction associated with both undesirable mail received and desirable mail filtered out decreases

Using Uncensored Communication Channels to Divert Spam Traffic

We offer a microeconomic model of the two-sided market for the dominant form of spam: bulk, unsolicited, and commercial advertising email. Most most spam is advertising, and thus should be modeled as a problem in the market supply and demand for advertising, rather than the usual approach of modeling spam as pure social cost to be eliminated. We adopt an incentive-centered design approach to develop a simple, feasible improvement to the current email system using an uncensored (open) communication channel. Such a channel could be an email folder or account, to which properly tagged commercial solicitations are routed without any blocking or filtering along the way. We characterize the circumstances under which spammers would voluntarily move much of their spam into the open channel, leaving the traditional email channel dominated by person-to-person, non-spam mail. We show that under certain conditions all email recipients are better off when an open channel is introduced. Only recipients wanting spam will use the open channel enjoying the less disguised messages and cheaper sale prices, and for all recipients the dissatisfaction associated with both undesirable mail received and desirable mail filtered out decreases.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49506/1/OpenChannel_tprc.pd

Essays in Information Economics.

I study two economic responses to the challenges of copyright infringements and spam brought about by the birth of the Internet. These responses are anti-spam mechanisms and open contents. I derive conditions under which distribution and care level taken to avoid damages in open contents are socially efficient or inefficient. Then I report experimental results on the production of open contents. I compare free-riding, efficiency and spillover when there are large or small teams using non-modular or modular production. Lastly, I propose and evaluate an anti-spam mechanism called uncensored communication channel, which aims to entice spam-demanders and spam-suppliers to trade in there instead of the traditional email channels.Ph.D.InformationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75967/1/bchiao_1.pd

Incentive-Centered Design for User-Contributed Content

We review incentive-centered design for user-contributed content (UCC) on the Internet. UCC systems, produced (in part) through voluntary contributions made by non-employees, face fundamental incentives problems. In particular, to succeed, users need to be motivated to contribute in the first place ("getting stuff in"). Further, given heterogeneity in content quality and variety, the degree of success will depend on incentives to contribute a desirable mix of quality and variety ("getting \emph{good} stuff in"). Third, because UCC systems generally function as open-access publishing platforms, there is a need to prevent or reduce the amount of negative value (polluting or manipulating) content. The work to date on incentives problems facing UCC is limited and uneven in coverage. Much of the empirical research concerns specific settings and does not provide readily generalizable results. And, although there are well-developed theoretical literatures on, for example, the private provision of public goods (the "getting stuff in" problem), this literature is only applicable to UCC in a limited way because it focuses on contributions of (homogeneous) money, and thus does not address the many problems associated with heterogeneous information content contributions (the "getting \emph{good} stuff in" problem). We believe that our review of the literature has identified more open questions for research than it has pointed to known results.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100229/1/icd4ucc.pdf7

Tom Sawyer production on the Internet: Getting the good stuff in, keeping the bad stuff out

User-contributed content as an input to the production of information services is not new, but it is growing rapidly in significance and prevalence. Open-source software, Wikipedia, and Flickr are but a few examples of the variety of information products and services relying on user-contributed content. I propose a characterization of user-contributed content, and identify contributor behavior issues critical for success. From the perspective of an information service provider, or the economy as a whole, these issues predict underprovision of content, inefficient mixes of quality and variety, and undesirable levels of content pollution. How might we design information services or systems to ameliorate these problems? Given the centrality of autonomous, motivated human behavior in user-contributed content problems, I argue this is a problem for \emph{incentive-centered design}: how to configure economic, social and psychological incentives to induce contribution, discourage pollution, and motivate sufficient effort to generate quality? To illustrate, for a content pollution problem loosely based on a popular Web site's experience, I offer a stylized mechanism that relies on user-contributed (meta)content to screen out polluting contributions.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78183/1/sea-icd4ucc.pd

Lessons Learned Too Well: Anonymity in a Time of Surveillance

It is no longer reasonable to assume that electronic communications can be kept private from governments or private-sector actors. In theory, encryption can protect the content of such communications, and anonymity can protect the communicator\u27s identity. But online anonymity-one of the two most important tools that protect online communicative freedom-is under practical and legal attack all over the world. Choke-point regulation, online identification requirements, and data-retention regulations combine to make anonymity very difficult as a practical matter and, in many countries, illegal. Moreover, key internet intermediaries further stifle anonymity by requiring users to disclose their real names. This Article traces the global development of technologies and regulations hostile to online anonymity, beginning with the early days of the Internet. Offering normative and pragmatic arguments for why communicative anonymity is important, this Article argues that anonymity is the bedrock of online freedom, and it must be preserved. U.S. anti-anonymity policies not only enable repressive policies abroad but also place at risk the safety of anonymous communications that Americans may someday need. This Article, in addition to providing suggestions on how to save electronic anonymity, calls for proponents of anti-anonymity policies to provide stronger justifications for such policies and to consider alternatives less likely to destroy individual liberties. In a time where surveillance technology and laws demanding identification abound, protecting the right to speak freely without fear of official retribution is critical to protecting these liberties

Volume 10, Number 2

Pentagon\u27s Waste, Exxon\u27s Wealth, Gay News, Sad News, Buses, Busts, Cable TVhttps://thekeep.eiu.edu/post_amerikan/1104/thumbnail.jp

CHORUS Deliverable 2.1: State of the Art on Multimedia Search Engines

Based on the information provided by European projects and national initiatives related to multimedia search as well as domains experts that participated in the CHORUS Think-thanks and workshops, this document reports on the state of the art related to multimedia content search from, a technical, and socio-economic perspective. The technical perspective includes an up to date view on content based indexing and retrieval technologies, multimedia search in the context of mobile devices and peer-to-peer networks, and an overview of current evaluation and benchmark inititiatives to measure the performance of multimedia search engines. From a socio-economic perspective we inventorize the impact and legal consequences of these technical advances and point out future directions of research

The Internet vs. the Nation-State: Prevention and Prosecution Challenges on the Internet in Republic of TürkiyI

Social, economic, and technological developments are widely accepted as powerful forces that affect the role, power, and functions of nation-states. Being one of the most influential technological developments in the recent decades, the internet has come into prominence in this regard. With the use of the Internet, the monopoly of media and information controlled by official ideologies, capitalist barons, or elites is seriously challenged. Consequently the power balance between individuals and authorities in the mass media and communication has been transformed in a significant way. Though their reliability may sometimes be questionable, the number and type of information resources has increased dramatically, and accessing information has become easier substantially. People are more interconnected today than ever before. They can easily find, join, or construct their personal, social or political networks. With a number of internet applications and social media, collective reactions, social movements and activities are more organized and effective today than ever before. That is why we have seen so much social fluctuation, unrest. protest, and political activism all over the world in the last few years. Moreover new terms and phenomena like cyber-crime, cyber warfare, and cyber-attacks have urged nation-states to be more careful about the internet and increase their efforts to control it. This level of social chaos in different states and increasing cyber-crimes lead us to question the effectiveness of nation-states\u27 controlling measures. Focusing on one state, the Republic of Türkiye, this study analyzes two important dimensions of state control efforts, prevention and prosecution. On the prevention side, I explore the effectiveness of internet access blocking. On the prosecution side, I analyze the effectiveness of prosecution in internet child pornography. The result of testing to measure the effectiveness of Internet website blocking reveals that there are significant gaps, complications, and dilemmas in these policies. A similar situation is also seen in the investigations of internet child pornography. Analysis conducted of the operational investigation files reveals that in most of the files, suspects could not be identified, traced or brought before judicial authorities. As seen in these two fields, state policing efforts of the Internet in a country are not absolute, and the Internet can be a vulnerable space in which any local or foreign actor or agents like criminals, opposition groups, terrorists can create problems for nation-states

Your Post Has Been Removed:Tech Giants and Free Speech

This open access monograph argues established democratic norms for freedom of expression should be implemented on the internet. Moderating policies of tech companies as Facebook, Twitter and Google have resulted in posts being removed on an industrial scale. While this moderation is often encouraged by governments - on the pretext that terrorism, bullying, pornography, “hate speech” and “fake news” will slowly disappear from the internet - it enables tech companies to censure our society. It is the social media companies who define what is blacklisted in their community standards. And given the dominance of social media in our information society, we run the risk of outsourcing the definition of our principles for discussion in the public domain to private companies. Instead of leaving it to social media companies only to take action, the authors argue democratic institutions should take an active role in moderating criminal content on the internet. To make this possible, tech companies should be analyzed whether they are approaching a monopoly. Antitrust legislation should be applied to bring those monopolies within democratic governmental oversight. Despite being in different stages in their lives, Anne Mette is in the startup phase of her research career, while Frederik is one of the most prolific philosophers in Denmark, the authors found each other in their concern about Free Speech on the internet. The book was originally published in Danish as Dit opslag er blevet fjernet - techgiganter & ytringsfrihed. Praise for 'Your Post has been Removed' "From my perspective both as a politician and as private book collector, this is the most important non-fiction book of the 21st Century. It should be disseminated to all European citizens. The learnings of this book and the use we make of them today are crucial for every man, woman and child on earth. Now and in the future.” Jens Rohde, member of the European Parliament for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe “This timely book compellingly presents an impressive array of information and analysis about the urgent threats the tech giants pose to the robust freedom of speech and access to information that are essential for individual liberty and democratic self-government. It constructively explores potential strategies for restoring individual control over information flows to and about us. Policymakers worldwide should take heed!” Nadine Strossen, Professor, New York Law School. Author, HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorshi