Articles of Interest

> Study outlines the cost of internal spam
> In the war on spam, legitimate business gets caught in the crossfire
> Spam: Has it become a stalemate?

Glossary:
SPAM - Unsolicited e-mail, Junk Mail

An e-mail message sent to a large number of people without consent, also known as Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) or junk e-mail. Spam is usually sent to promote a product or service. drains a tremendous amount of network bandwidth.

As a broadcast, spam is characterized by its large volume. Spammers follow the traditional direct-marketing ploy of saturating the intended audience, hoping for a tiny return-from less than 1 percent up to 5 percent. Spammers don't care about the large number of people they irritate or offend, because there always seems to be those few people who visit their advertised Web site or order their product.

The term actually "comes from a Monty Python television show in which one particular episode made so many references to the canned meat product that the rest of the show was overshadowed by the spam motif." It is considered to be a serious violation of netiquette and many ISPs are utilizing anti-spam tools and methods fight and pursue spammers.

The most common forms of spam in your In-Box are:

  • Chain letters;
  • Pyramid schemes (including Multilevel Marketing, or MLM);
  • Other "Get Rich Quick" or "Make Money Fast" (MMF) schemes;
  • Offers of phone sex lines and ads for pornographic Web sites;
  • Offers of software for collecting e-mail addresses and sending spam;
  • Offers of bulk e-mailing services for sending spam;
  • Stock offerings for unknown start-up corporations;
    Quack health products and remedies; and
    Illegally pirated software (warez).

Contrary to popular belief, "spam is not protected by national Free Speech laws because free speech guarantees you the right to say what you want (within reason), it does not guarantee you a platform to make yourself heard in."

For example, your "daily newspaper will take any commercial advertisement subject to two constraints: (a) it must fit within their advertising guidelines, and (b) the advertiser must pay for the costs of distribution. Spam fails on both of these counts."

Also contrary to popular belief, "anti-spam is not censorship because censorship is blocking information based on its content whereas spam-blocking attempts to keep the content in its proper place."

Another example, your "local public library has a bulletin board where people can post for-sale ads and business cards; they would be rightfully upset at someone who inserted an advertising flyer inside every book on the shelves, which is the equivalent of posting a notice to every Usenet group."