FC: Harvey Silverglate on DMA's very narrow definition of spam

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Mon Jul 14 2003 - 22:21:55 PDT

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    Subject: RE: Direct Marketing Association's very narrow view of what spam is
    Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 14:21:41 -0400
    From: "Harvey Silverglate" <hasat_private>
    To: <declanat_private>
    
    Hey Declan,
    	According to Wientzen's way of thinking: If you're being held as
    a suspected terrorist, and your friendly torturer tells you that he's
    going to shove a hot poker up your ass, and then he indeed does shove
    the hot poker up your ass, it's not torture, since he was honest and
    straightforward in announcing to you, in advance, who he is and where
    he's coming from and what he's about to do to you?  My point is that I'm
    not quite sure why it matters if your tormenter lets you know who he is
    and what he's doing to do. If you get 200 email a day from people
    seeking to entice you into a commercial (or fraudulent) transaction, it
    hardly matters if they're properly labelled. The only difference between
    proper labelling and "fraudulent" labelling is that the former has to be
    opened to see what's there, while the latter can be deleted while still
    unopened. While I prefer the latter (much as I prefer being slapped
    around rather than having a hot poker shoved up my ass), I don't see how
    proper labelling changes an unwanted email from being spam (although it
    does stop it from being fradulent).
    	As you know, I'm a free speech absolutist, and I do not buy into
    the distinction between "core protected speech" and "commercial free
    speech", but I do believe in the imposition of "reasonable time, place
    and manner" restrictions, and it seems to me it's reasonable for
    spammers to ask, first, if you're willing to be placed on their spamming
    list. All people who do indeed respond favorably now and then to a
    spammed advertisement would agree; others, like me, would not opt in. In
    this regard, the email medium differs from receiving junk mail -- in
    terms of what's a reasonable manner for delivery.
    						Harvey Silverglate
    
    
    
    
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