Poll: How do you feel about anti-spam laws?

Wow...Josh finally used one of my real polls, and I got first post??� It's my lucky day!

Oh, I thought you meant laws outlawing spiced ham.

While they're at it they might as well outlaw spiced ham as well...

If they're are two things i hate in this world, it's email spam and spiced ham... unless of course it's green spiced ham.

oO Spam in the place where you live..Oo

Wow, for once I'm one of the indecisive clods. Logically, I'm opposed to such legislation on the grounds that it's not the government's business. Emotionally, I think it's great. I think logic rules out in the face of the fact that there are good ways of blocking spam (SpamAssassin filters out around 1,000 spams per day for me, and only lets a handful through).

Much like snail mail (junk mail) and phone calls, I figure that my email box is MY email box.� I put into it what I'd like to have in it.� My phone is MY phone - don't call me unless I request it.� My mail box...you get the picture.

I feel that it isn't so much MY property as it is MY time and personal space.� For example: I figure that it's rude for someone to call my home number to sell me something.� It's my time.� I didn't ask for it.� I feel I am perfectly within my rights to cut the person off or even hang up - because it was rude for that individual to impose upon my time, phone and space.� (Don't get me started on those people who stalk unsuspecting "customers" at malls or on streets.� MY space.� MY time.)

Um.� I'm not a mean person.� I wouldn't call someone uninvited.�� Or mail them or send unwanted email unless I know I am welcome to do so.� I just think that it would be nice if others felt the same way.� :)

Besides.� Isn't it rather presumptuous of someone to assume that I need bigger breasts, a bigger penis (eh??), sex with barn animals, to lose weight, to buy "marital aids," car insurance, a repossessed home, new car, Viagra, amatuer blondes, free porn for life, life history of anyone I know... and really, Ashley, I stopped IMing you for a reason.

See...I agree that it's rude to send spam and make telemarketing calls and all that, because, as you said, it's my time and my mailbox/phone/whatever...� But that also means that I don't want the government dictating who can or can't email or call me.� I just don't see how it's their place to determine that.� Email is a private thing, business is (for the most part) a private thing, so why should email advertisements�be regulated?

To put the issue in a different perspective, I compare it to junk snail mail.� I can't imagine the government getting away with outlawing that, even though they run the postal service.� So why do they get a say in email, which they really have nothing to do with?� (Except, of course, for that whole Al-Gore-inventing-the-internet thing.)

is the US postal service still regulated by�the government?

I thought that was one of the agencies that was deregulated.

Really?
That's possible...I must've missed something...

Well, strike that point from the record, then.

It's still quasi-governmental, but it is not a full US government agency any more. Think Amtrack. Kinda like that. Subsidized and overseen by the government, but responsible for its own management.

The difference is that the sender pays the cost of snail mail, the recipient pays for email. Actually the servers carry the financial burden which they pass on to the consumers. I filter out lots of spam of of course I can't get all of it.

So what, would you think the same of someone who offered you a flyer or tried to sell you something on the street? People have the right to offer you something. You have the right to refuse once and ask not to be bothered again.

I think people have just gotten way to sensitive about it all. When I get called by a telemarketer I politely interrupt them and inform them that I do not want their product and to please cease and desist from calling me in the future.

I can do without information on beastiality. Not interested. Enlarging my breasts, especially since I am a man. and all the other crap I have do shovel out on a daily basis. I know some day there may be a law that says it is required that i read the ads as it will keep the bastards in business, but this is not the time and I certain do not feel like wasting my valuable time looking up info on college girl web cams!

I didn't know there were any. Apparently there are, so I'm happy about that.

While I would LOVE to stop getting so much spam, I have to wonder whether it could be easily regulated. A lot of spam mail has faked headers. Would it be that easy to trace where it came from? Maybe it would be; I don't really know much about that kind of thing. Also, would this create a slippery slope that would lead to people and companies being prosecuted for mass mailings that AREN'T spam? I hate spam, but I'd have to know more about how these laws would work before coming out totally in favor.

What I wonder about is whether enough people actually buy anything advertised in spam mailings to make them worthwhile. I guess they're free to send out, though, so it doesn't really matter.

I also hate seeing the fact that these spammers can steal your domain address or email and make the spam look like it's coming from you.

Then your account could be suspended.

The only way you know it's happening if you get the bounced emails back.

I agree!!!!!!! My husband has been having a lot of trouble with that.

I had a HUGE problem with that with my domain at the beginning of the year.

Now they took my NG email address (which I've been putting NOSPAM in forever but they must've found the old archives) and have been using that.

Canada.com is not email friendly and won't tell you that they've suspended your account for spamming (when you're not doing it) so I keep notifying them when I get the bouncebacks. *sigh*