[pmmail-list] Spam -- your definition

[Robert Gammon]

While many complain as Ann does below about the COST of 
unsolicited e-mail, I take a different view.

Phone service is NOT free.  Telemarketers who call me are using 
an analogous avenue of access (i.e. we pay for both phone service 
and internet access).  The distinction between telemarketers and 
unsolicited e-mail is lost on me.  Both CAN be objectionable, and 
both can be perfectly acceptable.  Most of us are somewhat 
hypersensitive to the cost of our cell phone traffic, so we would 
objet strenously to telemarketers who call our cell phones.

The US Mail service is not free.  We pay for everything we send.  
Granted, we don't pay for what we receive.  In this respect junk 
mail delivered by the USPS IS different.  Still, I am paying a 
price for every piece of US Mail I receive, in that the USPS gets 
a subsidy from the Federal Government, so I pay for it in the 
taxes that the Feds get to keep out of my paycheck.

Robert

On Thu, 30 May 2002 08:43:55 -0600 (MDT), Ann Knight wrote:

>On Thu, 30 May 2002 11:00:24 -0300, PMMail OS/2 Support wrote:
>
>>Some people say any unsolicited *commercial* email is "spam". 
OK,
>>that seems easier to buy, but then why the furious response to 
these
>>emails? Unsolicited commercial contact has been around in 
society for
>>at least hundreds of years. People come to your door or call 
you on
>>the phone and ask if you'll buy their products. They send you 
flyers
>>in the mail or through other direct delivery methods, etc. Sure 
we
>>don't love it, but most of us don't attempt to have those
>>callers/mailers arrested and/or their businesses shut down 
because of
>>it. 
>
> UCE/UBE (my definition of "spam") is theft. Telemarketers don't 
call me collect, and junk mail 
>doesn't come to my door postage due. The cost of spam (estimated 
at US$8 billion per year) is 
>paid by me and every other end user on the Internet, whether we 
like it or not. I think you should 
>read the Net Abuse FAQs pertaining to email, you can start at 
http://www.spamfaq.net/
>
>-- 
> Thanks,
>Ann
>
>- pmmail-list - The PMMail Dicussion List 
---------------------------
>To POST to the list, send your message to:
>pmmail-list@blueprintsoftwareworks.com
>
>To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to mdaemon@bmtmicro.com with the 
first 
>line of the message body being...
>UNSUBSCRIBE pmmail-list@blueprintsoftwareworks.com
>----------------------------------------------------------------
-----

- pmmail-list - The PMMail Dicussion List ---------------------------
To POST to the list, send your message to:
pmmail-list@blueprintsoftwareworks.com

To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message to mdaemon@bmtmicro.com with the first 
line of the message body being...
UNSUBSCRIBE pmmail-list@blueprintsoftwareworks.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------