Re: legitimate unsolicited commercial e-mail vs spam

From: Matt Magri <matt_at_netmeg.net>
Date: Wed 10 Nov 1999 16:51:52 -0500

BTW, "SPAM" (all caps) is a registered trademark of
Hormel Corporation. Unsolicited [commercial/bulk]
e-mail is "spam" (not all caps).

JEFF GRAINGER WROTE:
> I think we are at a crossroad here, not specifically
> with "unsolicited e-mail" but how we view the Internet
> in general. SPAM has been about from the beginning when
> the Internet was a research tool used primarily by
> undergraduate students and academics. [ .. ]

What I recall from the NSF days was that anything that
hinted of a commerical post was roundly shouted down.
The closest thing we ever had to spam back then was
that student who asked everyone to send him a dollar
(IIRC) to help him pay for school.

> It wasn't considered a tool of business.
> But haven't things changed lately!

So true.

> Although I have long been against SPAMERS I have to
> admit that as businesses increasingly adopt the
> Internet as a medium for conducting business, the
> argument put forward that unsolicited e-mail is no
> different to unsolicited telemarketing, direct mail
> and cold sales calls can not be easily dismissed.

Well, first off, it's not an "argument", so much as a
fervent wish on the part of advertisers who love the
convenience (to them) and the cheap price (to them).
Regardless, while it sounds great to say that it will
change as more legitimate businesses get online, the
fact remains that the way -others- react to unsolicited
commercial email isn't up to those businesses. In the
end it's up to the people who have to pay to handle the
postage-due ads. If PacBell Internet, say, isn't keen
on having their mail system overloaded with unsolicited
ads, then they have a big incentive to block those ads.
The least costly, and most effective, way to do that is
to block mail from sites that allow UCEers to send
mail. That reaction is so effective that there are no
longer dedicated spam sites. Today's UCEers have to
scrabble about the margins using throwaway dialup
accounts, etc. No Internet access provider who wants
to remain in business will allow companies to send UCE
from their site.

So, as long as other people don't want to deliver the
postage-due ads for the advertiser, there's no way for
a legitimate company to do UCE. Fortunately, there are
opt-in schemes, some of which actually involve some
compensation to the receiver's ISP, etc. It's a great
idea which pretty much addresses the problem.

> Hell I hate them all, snail SPAM, phone SPAM and
> e-mail SPAM, but if freedom of speech IS the hallmark
> of the Internet why do we pontificate about SPAM!
> Go figure.

Then again, freedom of the press belongs to those who
own the presses. You can't have a "right" that won't
exist unless someone else foots the bill.

Matt
--
Matt Magri
Netmeg Internet




Received on Wed Nov 10 1999 - 15:51:52 CST