[760] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: What is SPAM? - was Re: Legislative Relief - was Re: Motion...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Justin Newton)
Wed Oct 18 14:40:35 1995
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 02:28:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: Justin Newton <justin@rainbow.dgsys.com>
To: Dave Siegel <dsiegel@rtd.com>
cc: Tim Bass <bass@dune.silkroad.com>, postel@isi.edu, com-priv@lists.psi.com,
nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <199510170312.UAA10716@seagull.rtd.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 *
