Spam Crap

Isn't the YOU-CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 great?

August 24, 2004

Can we petition to repeal the can-spam act? Elliot

I wish. The you-CAN-spam act is self-contradictory. It claims that the reason that anti-spam legislation is necessary is that spam, fighting spam, anti-spam technologies, and so on unduly cost individuals, ISPs and other businesses a great deal of time and money, which the end user does not have the option not to spend (either you have to spend time downloading, storing, and clicking delete, or you have to not have email). However, the primary recourse recommended and provided is to purchase additional hardware and complicated software to try to reduce the amount of spam that you have to download and delete. How this can be construed by an intelligent human being as a solution to the problem as stated is beyond me...

Maybe I should start fax-spamming my congressmen, see how they enjoy it. As long as they can opt out, eh? Elliot

Actually, as long as you provide an on-line means to unsubscribe that is 'reasonably available' for 30 days after the mailing was sent and will get people who ask removed from the list that they requested removal from within ten days of the request it isn't even spam.

The law actually cannot be construed to do anything to prevent or reduce spam...