Chacham's Journal: Verbiage: On email: Spam and the approach

Too much spam. When it comes to advertisements, spam is different than mail. Although i usually don't like snail-mail advertisements (i sometimes do, but if i could i'd stop getting everything) i understand that the mailer is spending money both on print and the postage (unlike politicians who get to advertise for free. I have a policy to throw those out immediately, and possibly not vote for any jerk who abuses the system like that). Email is different in that there is no cost, so the market which normally somewhat regulates itself is not availible here. Even so, i'm hesistant for a ban on this form of spam as a principle. I understand things must be done, i am just hesitant. Caution can be a good thing.

However, of late i've been getting overwhelming amounts of adult material and trojan horses. If i got these things in the mail, it would be a federal crime. This is not something that the market regulates, rather society--through their representatives in the government--regulates it. And therein lies the problem with email. Although there is market of sorts (primitive as it may be) there is no presiding law over it. And on that, i am not hesitiant to outlaw.

The question is who could outlaw it? The obvious answer would be the UN. However, for social, moral, and political reasons i do not repsect, honor, or trust the UN. With that option invalidated, the only other form of law would be a treaty. That seems fine, but the people who make treaties haven't the slightest idea about what email actually is. Perhaps we need to explore that option.

The other option is lawlessness and vigilantes. But, the current situation is not working. I wonder if it could.

But all these is about what we can receive. Snail mail is brought to us. And so is email. (Even though we check out email, this is analogous to checking our mail or post box.) Because of this, the action (the sending) is on the sender. So, to regulate those actions means to regulate the sender. To follow this, if we wanted more control, we would have to be doing the action, such as pulling email. Somewhat analogous to taking adverisements from the shopping market, or even going to the library to take out a book. They are availible to whomever (whoever?) wants, but we have no requirements to get it. Perhaps this would be better for email. I just don't know how that would be actualized is the real world.

reporting

[capoccia]

You should be reporting your spam to the authorities. I have been doing that for the last four months and have seen an average decline of 4.7 spams per week.

You can see the details in my February Spam Report [kandent.com] (also as one of my Slashdot journal [slashdot.org] entries).

Re:reporting

[Chacham]

Interesting, perhaps.

Thanx.