I used to be all for legislation against spam until I really thought it over. Do we really want to give up more of our rights to government legislation? I know what you're thinking - a bill against spam would only affect companies & people that are sending unsolicited commercial email, not me. But consider the following:
Joeblow@dickswidgets.com sends an email to his favorite mailing list, linking to a/. story.
But what he didn't realize was that slashdot.com is owned by a private, for-profit company, and actually sells merchandise from this site. So is Joe Blow sending spam? Can he be fined for this transgression? If he sent the mail from work, is Dick's Widgets now liable for his actions?
What if Joe Blow does some for-profit programming on the side, and links to his web page on every email he sends out? How is this different from the 'I'm 18 & horny!' spam we all hate so much? Should Joe Blow expect everyone to whom he want to send mail to opt him in?
Can we really expect our legislators to understand the issue well enough to craft a bill that protects Joe's right to send email, but blocks the spammers? Why am I asking so many questions? Where am I, and who are you people?
Slashdot Mirror
I used to be all for legislation against spam until I really thought it over. Do we really want to give up more of our rights to government legislation? I know what you're thinking - a bill against spam would only affect companies & people that are sending unsolicited commercial email, not me. But consider the following: Joeblow@dickswidgets.com sends an email to his favorite mailing list, linking to a /. story.
But what he didn't realize was that slashdot.com is owned by a private, for-profit company, and actually sells merchandise from this site. So is Joe Blow sending spam? Can he be fined for this transgression? If he sent the mail from work, is Dick's Widgets now liable for his actions?
What if Joe Blow does some for-profit programming on the side, and links to his web page on every email he sends out? How is this different from the 'I'm 18 & horny!' spam we all hate so much? Should Joe Blow expect everyone to whom he want to send mail to opt him in?
Can we really expect our legislators to understand the issue well enough to craft a bill that protects Joe's right to send email, but blocks the spammers? Why am I asking so many questions? Where am I, and who are you people?