RE: [Asrg] Another criteria for "what is spam"...

[Barry Shein <bzs@world.std.com>]

On June 4, 2003 at 16:07 peter@titankey.com (Peter Kay) wrote:
 > While I agree w/ you, I think its best to keep the definition short,
 > black and white.
 > 
 > How's this:
 > 
 > Spam is defined as unsolicited bulk email

How's this: Crime is the unauthorized appropriation or harm of
another's person or property.

Short, black and white...one wonders why we need courts and reams of
legal texts...


 > Bulk email is defined as the transmission of 2 or more emails via a
 > primarily automated process.
 > 
 > Unsolicited email is defined as email where the recipient has not
 > implicitly or explicitly approved of receiving email from the sender.
 > 
 > Sender can mean an individual or an organization.
 > 
 > A recipient implicitly approves of receiving email from a given sender
 > if the recipient has previously sent email to the sender and the
 > recipient has not explicitly requested to not receive further email from
 > the sender.
 > 
 > Peter
 > 
 > 
 > > -----Original Message-----
 > > From: Barry Shein [mailto:bzs@world.std.com] 
 > > Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 1:23 PM
 > > To: asrg@ietf.org
 > > Subject: Re: [Asrg] Another criteria for "what is spam"...
 > > 
 > > 
 > > 
 > > At this point if we could just get rid of the spamming which 
 > > is best characterized by its illegal/gray-area behavior I 
 > > suspect the problem would become much more manageable even if 
 > > not completely solved.
 > > 
 > > That's one PR problem with all this, the more we focus on the 
 > > message (email whose contents I don't want) the more we're 
 > > opening ourselves to accusations of just being 
 > > anti-commercial zealots.
 > > 
 > > Who can argue with something like:
 > > 
 > > 
 > > 
 > > ALTHOUGH spam covers a wider set of unwanted email it is certainly
 > > (bulk) email which uses illegal and/or ethically questionable 
 > > methods to ensure its delivery including but not limited to:
 > > 
 > >     a) Exploitation of open relays and proxies for transmission.
 > > 
 > >     b) Forged and often purposely misleading header information.
 > > 
 > >     c) Creation and use of computer viruses for transmission.
 > > 
 > >     d) Encoding of the message and header information with the intent
 > >     to deceive filters and/or recipients.
 > > 
 > >     e) Inclusion of phony removal and/or affiliation information.
 > > 
 > >     f) Highly inappropriate demography (e.g. sending explicit material
 > >     to children, making no attempt to prevent that.)
 > > 
 > >     g) Misleading and deceitful subject and other presentation
 > >     lines designed to trick someone into opening the mail.
 > > 
 > >     h) Obscuring any possibility of identification of the sender
 > >     and/or beneficiaries of the mail.
 > > 
 > > etc.
 > > 
 > > I PURPOSELY DIDN'T CRAFT THAT to be finely-honed language so 
 > > don't start objecting that you see holes in some of the 
 > > wording w/o further clarification, of course, not my point.
 > > 
 > > I just wanted to keep it short and easy to consider, designed 
 > > for knowledgeable colleagues, not hostile skeptics.
 > > 
 > > MY POINT IS, a list like that is easy for legislators, the 
 > > media, etc to get behind and difficult for a so-called 
 > > white-hat bulk mailer to quibble with in contrast to 
 > > definitions which focus on the repetitious, unsolicited, 
 > > promotional nature of spam. The latter make spam sound like a 
 > > lot of other annoying-but-tolerated advertising.
 > > 
 > > Obviously it'd be important to stress that this is just a 
 > > first step trying to deal with the worst of the problem and 
 > > not intended to be exhaustive.
 > > 
 > > Finally, and frankly, I think if we could just accomplish 
 > > that much we'd put the majority of the real dirtbags out of 
 > > business, and then can tune further. They can't tolerate 
 > > accountability of any sort.
 > > 
 > > -- 
 > >         -Barry Shein
 > > 
 > > Software Tool & Die    | bzs@TheWorld.com           | 
 > > http://www.TheWorld.com
 > > Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 
 > > 617-739-0202        | Login: 617-739-WRLD
 > > The World              | Public Access Internet     | Since 
 > > 1989     *oo*
 > > _______________________________________________
 > > Asrg mailing list
 > > Asrg@ietf.org
 > > https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg
 > > 
 > > 
 > > 
 > 
 > 
 > _______________________________________________
 > Asrg mailing list
 > Asrg@ietf.org
 > https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg
_______________________________________________
Asrg mailing list
Asrg@ietf.org
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/asrg