I received a similar letter in 2006 from ESA while in the dorms at UC Berkeley. All I was asked to do was to take down the infringing material and notified that if I did it again I would have my internets revoked. No word from then in 2+ years.
However, their premise of "reducing harm" is questionable. How can we be sure that a person who decided to purchase these drugs (against all warnings) really believes that not buying them is the best thing for him? What if this person really wants to purchase a drug that he thinks will enlarge him? Who gives the researchers the right to decide what other people should spend their money on? Under several legal interpretations, forcing a person not to buy something perceived as harmful is not legal: denying to sell cigarettes to a person of legal age may be illegal, under discrimination laws.
The site that the spam normally points to actually sends placebos or mislabled painkillers instead of the actual drugs, so I don't think this is really an ethical issue.
However, even if the site did send the real drugs, it is *not* difficult to find an alternative website willing to sell the same items. Not to mention the fact that the sending of the spam was illegal in the first place.
Slashdot Mirror
I received a similar letter in 2006 from ESA while in the dorms at UC Berkeley. All I was asked to do was to take down the infringing material and notified that if I did it again I would have my internets revoked. No word from then in 2+ years.
However, their premise of "reducing harm" is questionable. How can we be sure that a person who decided to purchase these drugs (against all warnings) really believes that not buying them is the best thing for him? What if this person really wants to purchase a drug that he thinks will enlarge him? Who gives the researchers the right to decide what other people should spend their money on? Under several legal interpretations, forcing a person not to buy something perceived as harmful is not legal: denying to sell cigarettes to a person of legal age may be illegal, under discrimination laws.
The site that the spam normally points to actually sends placebos or mislabled painkillers instead of the actual drugs, so I don't think this is really an ethical issue. However, even if the site did send the real drugs, it is *not* difficult to find an alternative website willing to sell the same items. Not to mention the fact that the sending of the spam was illegal in the first place.