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Brad Templeton On Spam's Silver Anniversary

Posted by timothy on from the silver-bullets-for-spammers dept.

Brad Templeton writes "This Saturday marks the 25th anniversary of the first spam I was able to find, and one month ago was the 10th anniversary of the first time a USENET posting was called a spam and the birth of the term (at least beyond mudds)." Templeton was also cited in the American Scientist article featured last Sunday.

6 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. one month anniversary by SHEENmaster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    of AOL blocking innocent mail servers just because they aren't on corporate IP blocks.

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
  2. Scary part... by Mullen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You know the scary part about this, is that he probably got 20 extra people to show up and made a sale off of the first spam.

    Spam is here because it works. Worked back then, works today. If it did not work, there would be no spam.

    --
    Linux O Muerte!
  3. aspirin is a special case ... by taniwha · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's trademark was removed from Bayer by the Allies as part of the WW1 reparations against Germany. 10 points for knowing the other trademark that was taken ....

  4. It's a historic address list by selan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You can read the original spam email on Templeton's site. The list of addressees is like a directory of the early net, including addresses like KLEINROCK at USC-ISI and POSTEL@USC-ISIB. I wonder how many spam harvesters will find these addresses and try to send them mail, now that they've been posted to the web :).

  5. Al Gore legalized Spam by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You know the scary part about this, is that he probably got 20 extra people to show up and made a sale off of the first spam.

    I note that the big gripe was that it was commercial speech on the ARPAnet, at a time when it was restricted to research projects. (This despite the fact that such a product announcement, intrusive as bulk eamil was, might actually have been consered "news" rather than a mere advertisement.)

    Of course that changed with the legislation that got Al Gore his rep for "claiming to invent the Internet". What the bill he pushed did was open the Internet to commercial use. On one hand, it's a boon. On the other hand, advertising is a "commercial use", which makes it a bit tougher for companies charging for Internet access to argue that the behavior is improper. Thus "Al Gore legalized Spam".

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  6. Re:I thought the immigration lawyers were the firs by Yunzil · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Cantor and Siegel, I believe, back in 1994 was the first USENET spam... meaning 9 years ago. or am I mistaken, and there was an even earlier example?

    The earliest instance I could find (on groups.google.com) of the infamous Cantor and Siegel Green Card Lottery spam was posted 7 Feb, 1994.

    Sometime in the evening of 17 Jan, 1994, a chap by the name of Clarence Thomas sent out the "Global Alert For All: Jesus Coming Soon" message.

    Then of course there was the Dave Rhodes "MAKE.MONEY.FAST" post. I couldn't find the earliest instance, but I found people complaining about it in 1993. :)