We propose a simple model of a financial market populated with heterogeneous agents. The market represents a network with nodes symbolizing the agents and edges standing for connections between them, thus, embodying local interactions in the market. By local interactions we mean any kind of...

Peer-to-peer technology has made massive music piracy possible, which, in turn, has arguably had a significant economic impact on the recording industry. Record labels have responded to online piracy with litigation and are also considering self-help measures. It is currently not obvious whether...

We develop a system dynamics model of message-based communication, where the information-processing capacity of message recipients is limited. Profit-seeking broadcasters send messages, but only some of these messages are valuable to recipients. Recipients cannot determine whether or not a...

Email marketing is a legitimate, lucrative, and widely used business tool, but it is in danger of being overrun by unwanted commercial email (also known as spam). Conventional approaches to maintaining the robustness of legitimate email attack pieces of the problem. In contrast, this article...

As filters improve, the information assets of spammers become more valuable and lead to more, not less, overall spamming activity. This is troubling to contemplate, because it means no amount of spending on better filters will be enough. The next levels of escalation might then involve...