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What is SPAM? - was Re: Legislative Relief - was Re: Motion...

  • From: Dave Siegel
  • Date: Mon Oct 16 23:46:01 1995

> > I don't think we really want any more laws that criminalize ill defined
> > acts.
> 
> Agreed.  Until the net community defines what is spam and other unacceptable
> messaging, we have no foundation to build on.  Can anyone define concisely
> what exactly is 'spam' ?  Or this this possible?

It is a meat-like substance which is delivered in a tin can.  It can be quite
good for breakfast with eggs if you can stand the grease content.  

;-)  Sorry, couldn't resist.

spam:  Any posting which contains an advertisement of a product.
posting:  Any peice of electronic material found either in a UseNet NewsGroup,
	  public mailing list (listserv), or a private mailing list.

I really don't see what the big deal is in all this.

A few years back, junk faxes reigned.  People eventually found out that these
junk faxes didn't make them any money, and were a waste of time, both in
sending them, and in taking phone calls from disgruntled recipients.  I suspect
that "spamming" will die out eventually as well.

I think the current thread of people saying they are making lots of MONEY off
these things are largely exaggerated.  The reputation of many of these
businesses is falling off the deep end.  Being considered a rude and
inconsiderate business is, generally speaking, not good for business.
You shouldn't have to explain basic concepts like these to people.  Perhaps
more documentation regarding what is "rude" and what is "not rude" could
be helpful, IF businesses actually read it, however, this will not prevent
JoeSchmoe advertising agency from raping and pillaging unsuspecting
businesses for lots of cash to spam for them.

Dave

-- 
Dave Siegel			President, RTD Systems & Networking, Inc.
(520)623-9663			Systems Consultant -- Unix, LANs, WANs, Cisco
[email protected]			User Tracking & Acctg -- "Written by an ISP, 
http://www.rtd.com/						for an ISP."