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Andy Sernovitz has the bluster of a guy who knows he is right -- and the slightly desperate air that comes when not everyone agrees. He is a New Yorker, a smart and funny and profane guy who absolutely cannot resist a spotlight. He is not afraid to share his opinions, or to act on them. He is bursting with anger -- and with hope.

He is, in short, a professional crusader. At this moment, it just so happens that he has chosen a particularly gripping crusade. It is a cause that resonates in hundreds of millions of homes and office cubicles around the world -- and one whose resolution could be worth billions of dollars. That cause is unsolicited commercial bulk email. Andy Sernovitz wants to rid the Internet of spam.

This morning, Sernovitz has arrived for breakfast in an especially dark mood. The world, it seems, is moving slower than he would like. "The Internet industry doesn't get it," he complains. "Arguably, spam is the single biggest threat to this industry. It's the defining issue. Advertisers are losing their shirts, and people are getting photos of twisted sex acts. The fact that the industry can't get its testicles out of its pocket to do something about it is an embarrassment. It's a tragedy that I have to do this myself."

Here is what is eating at Sernovitz. He has cofounded the Inbox Defense Task Force, which will, he fully expects, throttle spam at the source. He believes that Internet marketers will pony up for an organization that, through investigative digging, harassment, and public education, helps force fraudulent bulk emailers out of business. Rather than trying to block spam after it has been sent, Sernovitz would make it unattractive to send spam in the first place.

It is a simple idea, a powerful idea, and -- as of this April morning -- an unpopular idea that has gone mostly nowhere. The Inbox Defense Task Force consists of Sernovitz, former William Morris talent agent Jonathan Trumper, and a newly hired executive director, Joan Campbell, a veteran trade-association manager. The task force operates out of space lent by the company that bought Sernovitz's consulting firm. All told, the task force has collected just two checks from corporate members.

Granted, Andy Sernovitz is not a household name. He founded the Association for Interactive Media, a successful trade association for Internet companies that was absorbed in 1998 by the Direct Marketing Association. He also started a dotcom incubator at precisely the wrong time, and that venture quickly foundered. Since then, he has made a living as an email marketing consultant. Although he is well connected in media circles, Sernovitz is basically a small fish swimming in deep, swirling waters.

Number of spams sent to an address created by Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, who promised to read any email -- for $500: 1

Sernovitz's problem, however, is more complex than that. It speaks to the peculiar economics and politics that have allowed spam to flourish and to a debate that is as fractured and unruly as the Internet itself. When it comes to email marketing, this is the reality: What the good guys want and what the bad guys want are more or less the same thing. J.P. Morgan Chase and Kraft U.S.A. promote credit cards and coffee in ways that aren't so different from the tactics employed by anonymous peddlers of porn and gambling. "Legitimate" marketers would rather the spammers disappear -- but not if that means quashing the opportunity that both groups enjoy.