The Network Connection

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 that category.

It's a Spam if...

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 discouraged.

What's an E-mailer to do?

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 http://just4u.com/webconsultants/spamfaq.htm.

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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