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Fax-Spam Prohibition Ruled Unconstitutional
An anonymous reader submitted a link to this Orange County Register story which reports that "A federal court has ruled in favor of Aliso Viejo (California)-based Fax.com in a dispute over the federal statute that bars sending mass, unsolicited faxes, the company said. Two years ago, Missouri sued Fax.com and another broadcast-fax advertising service that has since gone out of business for violations of the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act." Missouri's Attorney General plans to appeal.
If the courts rule that it's legal to steal from me, the results are obvious and inevitable. No more fax, no more junk mail, no answering machine (same legal logic applies), no telephone. You want to talk to me, you'll do it just like the Founding Fathers expected - you'll send a letter or you'll visit me in person because the cost of me offering any alternative is too high.
But that's exactly why spam is not theft. You are voluntarily offering to be contacted by random people via email. You can't expect to have the power to retroactively reject certain emails which you do not want. If you don't want unsolicited emails, set up your mail server not to accept them.