Probably not.
"Spam is annoying, but this kind of spam is truly offensive[...]":
"Spam is annoying, but this kind of spam is truly offensive[...]":
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Spam is spam is spam, right?
- Thread starter Dimandja
- Start date
sleipnir214
Programmer
That is both an eye of the beholder question and a legal question.
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MasterRacker
New member
If it's sent by Hormel it's Spam....
Jeff
The future is already here - it's just not widely distributed yet...
Jeff
The future is already here - it's just not widely distributed yet...
mrdenny
Programmer
- May 27, 2002
- 11,595
Spammers should be lined up and shot, and beat, and flogged, and drawn and quartered.
Man I hate spam.
Denny
--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)
![[noevil]](/data/assets/smilies/noevil.gif "[noevil] [noevil]")
(My very old site)
Man I hate spam.
Denny
--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)
(My very old site)
sleipnir214
Programmer
Dollie:
It is an eye-of-the-beholder type problem. Nearly everyone agrees that unsolicited commercial email is spam. There are, however, a lot of people who take the definition beyond that. I have corresponded with people who fervently believe that any unexpected email, whether for commercial purposes or not, is spam.
And when I said 'nearly everyone", I have talked with a rare few who will only extent the sobriquet spam to unsolicited commercial email which has objectionble (as in obscene or tasteless) content.
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It is an eye-of-the-beholder type problem. Nearly everyone agrees that unsolicited commercial email is spam. There are, however, a lot of people who take the definition beyond that. I have corresponded with people who fervently believe that any unexpected email, whether for commercial purposes or not, is spam.
And when I said 'nearly everyone", I have talked with a rare few who will only extent the sobriquet spam to unsolicited commercial email which has objectionble (as in obscene or tasteless) content.
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any unexpected e-mail ?
So if I have a friend like that, I'm supposed to call him before I send him a message, to warn him that he'll be getting one from me ?
Sounds a bit extreme to me. By that logic, they should also refuse unsollicited telephone calls, strangers talking to them in the street, and anything having to do with radio.
I think my view of spam is the same as the majority : recieving an offer for a commercial or pseudo-commercial service that I have never and will never consider.
Thank you, but I do not need enlargement, nor enhancement pills, I know how to please my wife and I will not help you get millions out of wherever they are alledgedly stashed. Oh, and I won't foreward that fake story of the poor little boy/girl/dog in some inexistant hospital/ward/whatever who is not going to die next week. Sorry, but I know its a hoax as soon as I'm asked to forward it to everyone I know. No thanks for trying.
Can we please kill these guys and get on with spreading KNOWLEDGE ?!
Pascal.
P.S. : Denny, you forgot hanged, tarred and feathered.
So if I have a friend like that, I'm supposed to call him before I send him a message, to warn him that he'll be getting one from me ?
Sounds a bit extreme to me. By that logic, they should also refuse unsollicited telephone calls, strangers talking to them in the street, and anything having to do with radio.
I think my view of spam is the same as the majority : recieving an offer for a commercial or pseudo-commercial service that I have never and will never consider.
Thank you, but I do not need enlargement, nor enhancement pills, I know how to please my wife and I will not help you get millions out of wherever they are alledgedly stashed. Oh, and I won't foreward that fake story of the poor little boy/girl/dog in some inexistant hospital/ward/whatever who is not going to die next week. Sorry, but I know its a hoax as soon as I'm asked to forward it to everyone I know. No thanks for trying.
Can we please kill these guys and get on with spreading KNOWLEDGE ?!
Pascal.
P.S. : Denny, you forgot hanged, tarred and feathered.
sleipnir214
Programmer
I didn't say these views were consistent or logical. I simply provided two eye-of-the beholder examples.
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lionelhill
Technical User
Another sort of message I find deeply offensive is the chain letter designed to make someone feel bad.
I'm thinking of a recent mail with a picture of a dead person and a note that if I didn't send it to 5 more people the dead person's ghost (graphically depicted!) would come and steal my soul!
These things target superstitious people, and the victims are also the perpetrators, in that the people most likely to be upset are also those most likely to send on 5 copies. They ruin friendships, because the friends of such people are also likely to believe this rubbish.
I'm not sure prosecuting the people who send on 5 copies is really fair or useful. I've no idea with current technology what can be done about this sort of thing. Automatic blocking of messages with known content? I dunno. It's not spam, because each individual sends only a few copies, but it can make a biggish bulk of mail, and is certainly a very bad thing.
I'm thinking of a recent mail with a picture of a dead person and a note that if I didn't send it to 5 more people the dead person's ghost (graphically depicted!) would come and steal my soul!
These things target superstitious people, and the victims are also the perpetrators, in that the people most likely to be upset are also those most likely to send on 5 copies. They ruin friendships, because the friends of such people are also likely to believe this rubbish.
I'm not sure prosecuting the people who send on 5 copies is really fair or useful. I've no idea with current technology what can be done about this sort of thing. Automatic blocking of messages with known content? I dunno. It's not spam, because each individual sends only a few copies, but it can make a biggish bulk of mail, and is certainly a very bad thing.
sleipnir214
Programmer
It must have taken an exceedingly twisted mind to come up with something that morbid.
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Rnadom musing... I find those chain letters the most offensive as well, especially since they often get past spam filters when sent by my grandparents or friends or whatnot. Is there room in the law for the fact that many of them are threatening the recipient?
sleipnir214
Programmer
This site states that a snail-mail chain letter which is in the form of a postcard and which threatens harm if the chain is broken is unmailable under federal law. Threatening matter cannot be mailed on the outside of mail. If it's in the envelope, it's legal.
I have no information on e-chain-mail or any idea if this applies to e-chain-mail.
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I have no information on e-chain-mail or any idea if this applies to e-chain-mail.
Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!
TANSTAAFL!!
lionelhill
Technical User
The problem is that threatening, twisted, or whatever, by the time they arive at a vaguely sane person prepared to do something about it, they've travelled an untraceable distance from the weird and twisted mind that created them.
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