[thelist] The Spam Argument

[Peekstok, Anna]

Frank wrote:

> It's not illegal to send unsolicited 
> commercial email if 
> it's honest in every respect, any more than some guy trying 
> to pick you up 
> at a bar. A nuisance perhaps, but what charge and penalty do 
> you assign? 
> Jail time for a single mother of two successfully raising 
> healthy children?

Again with the single mother raising two children! If we're talking about
whether spamming is an honorable or dishonorable way to earn money, it
doesn't matter who the spammer is or what s/he does with the money. To keep
flogging that issue makes it look like you can't support the spammer's side
of the argument on its own merits.

And as for "honest in every respect", I'm sorry, but that's laughable. Look
at the bogus "from" and "subject" lines in your daily ration of spam --
bare-faced deceptions intended to lure in the lonely (From: candi Subject:
missed you last nite), greedy, and just plain clueless. Then there's the
"unsubscribe" line that only tells the spammer s/he's got a live one -- so
s/he can turn around and sell it on a list of guaranteed active addresses.

Anna