FC: Harvey Silverglate on DMA's very narrow definition of spam

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Subject: RE: Direct Marketing Association's very narrow view of what spam is
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 14:21:41 -0400
From: "Harvey Silverglate" <has () theworld com>
To: <declan () well com>

Hey Declan,
        According to Wientzen's way of thinking: If you're being held as
a suspected terrorist, and your friendly torturer tells you that he's
going to shove a hot poker up your ass, and then he indeed does shove
the hot poker up your ass, it's not torture, since he was honest and
straightforward in announcing to you, in advance, who he is and where
he's coming from and what he's about to do to you?  My point is that I'm
not quite sure why it matters if your tormenter lets you know who he is
and what he's doing to do. If you get 200 email a day from people
seeking to entice you into a commercial (or fraudulent) transaction, it
hardly matters if they're properly labelled. The only difference between
proper labelling and "fraudulent" labelling is that the former has to be
opened to see what's there, while the latter can be deleted while still
unopened. While I prefer the latter (much as I prefer being slapped
around rather than having a hot poker shoved up my ass), I don't see how
proper labelling changes an unwanted email from being spam (although it
does stop it from being fradulent).
        As you know, I'm a free speech absolutist, and I do not buy into
the distinction between "core protected speech" and "commercial free
speech", but I do believe in the imposition of "reasonable time, place
and manner" restrictions, and it seems to me it's reasonable for
spammers to ask, first, if you're willing to be placed on their spamming
list. All people who do indeed respond favorably now and then to a
spammed advertisement would agree; others, like me, would not opt in. In
this regard, the email medium differs from receiving junk mail -- in
terms of what's a reasonable manner for delivery.
                                                Harvey Silverglate




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