For those of you who believe the Spam issue turns on some property right or involves theft of services, do you also believe that buying a TV and hooking it to your cable company makes you the owner of the cable network? ISP's are generally subject (in the US) to the same laws as telephone company and broadcasters - their networks are essential public property (as is the Internet) and they are obliged to carry legal traffic. And that includes calls to sell you a newspaper subscription or ask for a political contribution to your "Do Not Call" home telephone. As an Internet subscriber you have every right to block traffic you don't want from reaching your mail queue, but you have no right to demand that I refrain from sending lawful e-mails. No offense intended. It's your First Amendment, too. Defend it; don't throw it away.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you're in the USA, Spammers SHOULD be happy and you should be happy that they're happy. It's called the First Amendment and it's a lot more important than anyone's petty convenience. Some of those anti-Spam fanatics really just don't get it. But they should would if those short-sighted folks ended up without a First Amendment. A little trash mail is a very small price to pay for protecting our precious rights, like the First Amendment.
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For those of you who believe the Spam issue turns on some property right or involves theft of services, do you also believe that buying a TV and hooking it to your cable company makes you the owner of the cable network? ISP's are generally subject (in the US) to the same laws as telephone company and broadcasters - their networks are essential public property (as is the Internet) and they are obliged to carry legal traffic. And that includes calls to sell you a newspaper subscription or ask for a political contribution to your "Do Not Call" home telephone. As an Internet subscriber you have every right to block traffic you don't want from reaching your mail queue, but you have no right to demand that I refrain from sending lawful e-mails. No offense intended. It's your First Amendment, too. Defend it; don't throw it away.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you're in the USA, Spammers SHOULD be happy and you should be happy that they're happy. It's called the First Amendment and it's a lot more important than anyone's petty convenience. Some of those anti-Spam fanatics really just don't get it. But they should would if those short-sighted folks ended up without a First Amendment. A little trash mail is a very small price to pay for protecting our precious rights, like the First Amendment.