This column is a continuing feature of Benchmarks intended to
present news and information on various aspects of wide area networks.
Because of a recent flurry of activity, you might have heard of,
or been the recipient of an Internet e-mail Spam. No, I'm not talking about
the receipt of a canned meat product via E-mail. In Internet terms, a Spam is
the transmission of large volumes of unsolicited E-mail (although I was
around when the Internet term was first used in this context, I have to admit
to not remembering it's origin - perhaps "Spam" was used because the e-mail
is often annoying, unwanted, and of undetermined origin). Many of the messages
which can be considered Spams, are advertisements for some commercial
endeavor (including what appear to be some get-rich-quick schemes).
Spams are an annoyance when they show up in your mailbox (or possibly more
than an annoyance if you pay for incoming E-mail), but they can often cause
major problems for mailing list maintainers or E-mail postmasters because of
the volume of E-mail they can initiate. One side effect of Spams is that
people on mailing lists often reply to complain about a Spam posting to the
list, and thereby just increase the amount of E-mail traffic for list
members. I would contend that activity which interferes with peoples' access
to Internet information is less than acceptable and I would include Spams in
So, what exactly is a Spam? A Spam is an E-mail message that is posted to
numerous Internet electronic mailing lists or news groups disregarding the
discussion purpose of those lists. A Spam is an E-mail message mailed to a
large number of addresses (often in the thousands, but equally problematic
for hundreds of addresses). A Spam is an unsolicited mass mailed E-mail
message which offers commercial opportunities to those who have never made a
direct request for such information.
Some people Spam unintentionally by assuming that just because several
discussion groups relate to some common topic, all readers of that
information would be interested in their particular piece of information.
For example, you might make the mistake of thinking that all readers of the
rec.music news groups would be interested in information for performing
musicians, where in reality, most readers of those groups would be classified
as fans or devotees. A message to one of these news groups would be
inappropriate a message to many or all of them would be a Spam.
Some people Spam intentionally by acquiring large numbers of Internet
E-mail addresses, usually culled from the ranks of mailing list subscribers
or news group posters. They then use these addresses to perform "marketing"
of their product or service. If you send a large number of unsolicited E-mail
messages all at once, then you may be a Spammer (some people might include in
this category the sending E-mail of questionable universal interest to all
employees of your organization). Since Internet technologies such as World
Wide Web offer more appropriate and effective channels for the dissemination
of commercial information, commercial E-mail Spams should definitely be
If you wish to be an active participant in E-mail mailing lists and
news groups there's not much you can do to keep your E-mail address from
being discovered by Spammers. However, there are some steps you can take to
protect yourself from being repeatedly Spammed. If you receive a mailing list
message that you feel is inappropriate for the list's topic of discussion,
reply to the message author (not to the list) politely and succinctly
expressing your feelings and also bring it to the attention of the list
moderator as well. Sometimes people don't realize that their message is
inappropriate and a little education goes a long way.
If you receive an unsolicited commercial offering that you feel is
inappropriate, you can reply to the sender requesting removal from any list
they are maintaining. You can also send an E-mail message to the postmaster
at the sender's Internet service provider to bring the inappropriate use to
their attention. You will need to look at the E-mail message's header to find
where the message originated, but once you do find the sender's Internet node
address you can just add "postmaster@" before that node and most sites will
accept mail to that address. For more information along these lines, see the
"Stop Spam FAQ" web page at
Spamming may soon become less frequent thanks to some legal remedies
against Spamming. Arlene Rinaldi, in her Web page, "The Net: User Guidelines
and Netiquette" (http://www.fau.edu/rinaldi/net/index.htm), provides the following
information in her section on Electronic Communications:
Under United States law, it is unlawful to use any "telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to send an unsolicited advertisement" to any "equipment which has the capacity (A) to transcribe text or images (or both) from an electronic signal received over a regular telephone line onto paper." The law allows individuals to sue the sender of such illegal "junk mail" for $500 per copy. Most states will permit such actions to be filed in Small Claims Court. This activity is termed "spamming" on the Internet.
A California court has already ruled on such a Spamming case. Published
reports have stated:
...Cyber Promotions, Inc. and its president Sanford Wallace have been ordered by a federal judge to swear, under penalty of perjury, that they will cease engaging in conduct which causes the overload of Concentric's mail system and the denial of mail service to Concentric Networks' subscribers.
In a lawsuit filed against Cyber Promotions and Wallace on October 2, 1996, seeking an injunction, compensatory and punitive damages, Concentric alleges that the Defendants send unsolicited electronic advertisements, or "spam," to hundreds of thousands of Internet users on a daily basis and falsely designate a Concentric Network account as the point of origin of those messages.
This case is typical of how many Spammers operate and Internet service
providers are becoming more and more diligent about discouraging their own
subscribers from engaging in Spamming activity as well as pursuing action
against those who send Spams purporting to be from their service. This is
why it's important to let the appropriate service provider know if you feel
that you have received one or multiple such unsolicited messages. It's
important to note that the legal remedies cited above are civil and not
criminal. If you receive a Spam, don't expect your local police to send a
squad car out to investigate.
In some ways, Spams are like the junk mail that the Post Office brings you.
It's sometimes easiest to just throw it away. You can request to be removed
from a particular mailing list if you can find the list's origin. If you find
the content to be particularly objectionable, you can bring that to the
attention of the mail's source and if you suspect illegal business practices,
you can always bring it to the attention of the Attorney General's office of
the State from which it apparently originated. Hopefully, however, as people
become more educated about the negative ramifications of Spamming, this
activity will become almost non-existent on the Internet.
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