Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-04958.html --- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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