----- Forwarded message from Tim May ----- From: Tim May Subject: Unintended Consequences of Anti-Spam (A.U.C.E) Laws To: cypherpunks Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 19:25:49 -0700 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.552) I hate being sucked into this ongoing spam debate, but there are just so many deeply wrong-headed memes floating around on this issue, and so much obvious chance for government mischief and intrusion, that I cannot resist adding more comments. Item: State of California has just passed a law criminalizing certain kinds of speech, that is, something some legislators and judges deem to be "unwanted commercial messages." Other states passing similar laws. Talk of RICO prosecutions, seizure of assets, the usual War on Some Drugs kind of nonsense. Item: How long before corporations cite spam laws to stop shareholders and customers from organizing campaigns against the corporations? If the CEO of McDonald's receives 10,000 letters from angry customers, is this spam? (I'll bet some of the major uses of the spam laws is along these lines, a kind of version of SLAPP suits (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation). Item: Or is there some exemption for "political and social speech"? (I haven't consulted the spam laws, but I assume there is some weasel language about "nothing in this legislation shall be construed to interfere with political advocacy....") And yet some of the most obnoxious messages I receive are NRA spam messages--they and other pro-gun groups have me on their mass mailing lists. Should they be allowed to send this spam? Or will some causes be judged politically incorrect? Is it OK to send thousands of spam pictures of aborted foetuses to abortion advocates? Item: How about religion? Item: If either political advocacy or religion is exempted, then spammers can insert religious messages into their spam. "Hello, I am Monsignor Ubalong N'fasti, Chief Prelate of the Catholic Church in Lagos, Nigeria. I am in urgent need of your assistance in continuing God's work in our country..." Item: Spammers can exploit _any_ exemption in the legislation for religion, political advocacy, environmental advocacy, etc. Having legislators or judges or ministerial-level bureaucrats deciding which messages are "exempt from spam laws" and which are not would be a free speech disaster. And so on. There are no good reasons for letting government decide which speech is political, which is advocacy, what is truth and what is not. --Tim May, Citizen-unit of of the once free United States " The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. "--Thomas Jefferson, 1787 ----- End forwarded message ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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