"What fools these mortals be..."
Alas - Shakespeare didn't know the half of it!

"Lycos Europe tried to turn the tables on spam artists last week. The Internet service offered a free screensaver at a site called "Make Love, Not Spam." When installed on users' computers, the screensaver would try to jam the sites of known spammers with bogus requests for data.

On Friday, Lycos yanked the screensaver and replaced it with a "stay tuned" sign -- but not before critics had called it vigilante justice. One Internet backbone provider, Global Crossing, even blocked traffic to the Lycos site, the British Internet provider Netcraft reported. Lycos Europe did not answer requests for comment Friday."

I also read about this elsewhere and my reaction was the same:

Excuse me ?? I fail to see the ethical breach here. I suppose if you had a home security system (ADT, et al) and it went out hunting for miscreants, it would be 'vigilante justice'.

On the other hand - there is no guard system, guard dog, police force, viable law - protecting us from spam. The people who flood my mailbox with offers for Rolex, Viagra etc., penis enlargement, lottery winnings (lottery enlargement and penis winnings - whatever) - and those who send the charming messages that have graphic sexual phrases - in the subject line - for God's sake (what does that mean, Mommy) - don't deserve 'vigilante justice'. They deserve to be hanged, drawn & quartered!