Hacker News Reader

There're still fax machines in heavy use in Japan. It's a strange place.

Fax machines are still present pretty much everywhere, especially in corporations and government facilities. When I've been working in the UK 5 years ago in a large research institution, I had a fax machine next to my desk.

(The only thing it did though was activating once a day and printing out some ads, mostly car dealerships or insurances, AFAIR.)

Is fax spam not illegal in the UK? In the US, AFAIK, there is a potential $500 fine per unsolicited fax ad.

I don't know. But the first time I saw it happening I went and shown it to my boss; she reacted like most people react to on-line ads. "Yeah, it does that."

I used to help my dad identify senders of spam faxes so we could get a court to issue summary judgment. I think the fine can be tripled if the violation is willful.

Even with faxes from a whole bunch of his clients... as many as I could trace back to the sender, and then of course collecting the judgment isn't easy. So after all that, it was barely enough to pay me. I guess that is why you don't see folks going after the spammers as much.

I was also surprised that flip-phones are a thing which a lot of people buy and use.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com