Re: What is SPAM? - was Re: Legislative Relief - was Re: Motion...

[Justin Newton <justin () rainbow dgsys com>]

On Mon, 16 Oct 1995, Dave Siegel wrote:

> > > I don't think we really want any more laws that criminalize ill defined
> > > acts.
> >
> > Agreed.  Until the net community defines what is spam and other unacceptable
> > messaging, we have no foundation to build on.  Can anyone define concisely
> > what exactly is 'spam' ?  Or this this possible?
>
> It is a meat-like substance which is delivered in a tin can.  It can be quite
> good for breakfast with eggs if you can stand the grease content.  
>
> ;-)  Sorry, couldn't resist.
>
> spam:  Any posting which contains an advertisement of a product.
> posting:  Any peice of electronic material found either in a UseNet NewsGroup,
>         public mailing list (listserv), or a private mailing list.
>
> I really don't see what the big deal is in all this.
>
> -- 
> Dave Siegel                   President, RTD Systems & Networking, Inc.
> (520)623-9663                 Systems Consultant -- Unix, LANs, WANs, Cisco
> dsiegel () rtd com                    User Tracking & Acctg -- "Written by an ISP, 
> http://www.rtd.com/                                           for an ISP."

Is every email you send then a spam since it contains an ad for UTA?  I 
don't think it is, but it is according to your definitions.  IMHO, a bad 
definition.  I am more favorable to the one that news.admin.* uses where 
anything which is posted to over X number of groups is spam (or velveeta 
if it follows a slightly different rule).  SPAM should not be content 
based.  If I sent out a copy of the bible to every single user on the 
internet (quite a feat to get the address list), I would consider that a 
spam, and I need not be advertising any product.  Hell, if I sent 
everyone on the internet the letter "a" it would probably crash a few 
machines.  So, what's the definition?



Justin Newton           * You have to change just to stay caught up.
Vice President/         *       
System Administrator    * 
Digital Gateway Systems *