[Asrg] Spam Isn't Just Sleaze (was: Another criteria for "what is spam"...)

Barry Shein <bzs@world.std.com> wrote:

 > At this point if we could just get rid of the spamming which is best
 > characterized by its illegal/gray-area behavior I suspect the problem
 > would become much more manageable even if not completely solved.
 >
 > That's one PR problem with all this, the more we focus on the message
 > (email whose contents I don't want) the more we're opening ourselves
 > to accusations of just being anti-commercial zealots.

Even "email whose contents I don't want" isn't just commercial.  Have you 
never gotten religious spam?  I've gotten a dozen or two.

 > Who can argue with something like:
 >
 >
 >
 > ALTHOUGH spam covers a wider set of unwanted email it is certainly
 > (bulk) email which uses illegal and/or ethically questionable methods

I can argue with it.  Focus too much on that sort, and the folks who are 
raring to spam but would use "legit" methods, will feel free.  As 
someone pointed out, if every business sent you one email a year, you'd 
get almost 8000 a day.  IIRC, that's even after assorted qualifiers, 
like making it USA-based only, and knocking out the ones that probably 
don't have any Internet access.  Even if he's overstating by two whole 
orders of magnitude, 80 spams a day is way too much.  Even 8 spams a day 
is an annoyance.

 > MY POINT IS, a list like that is easy for legislators, the media, etc
 > to get behind and difficult for a so-called white-hat bulk mailer to
 > quibble with in contrast to definitions which focus on the
 > repetitious, unsolicited, promotional nature of spam. The latter make
 > spam sound like a lot of other annoying-but-tolerated advertising.

There are vast differences that can be pointed out.  There's the way that 
the other forms don't steal our resources, don't prevent us from seeing 
other important messages, etc.  The only stuff that comes even close are 
billboards that blot out scenic views, telemarketers who call at bad 
times or fill up our answering machines, and large snailmail "circulars" 
that can trap normal mail so that we don't see the normal mail when we 
toss out the circular.  Lots of people used to rage about the first, 
they still do about the second, and some are starting to rage about the 
third.

-- 
David J. Aronson, Unemployed Software Engineer near Washington DC
See http://destined.to/program/ for online resume, and other info

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