Re: Excerpt on SPAM from Edupage, 11 February 1997

["Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>]

At 6:21 PM +0000 2/12/97, Attila T. Hun wrote:
>    maybe relief is in sight; can we spell excedrin?
>
>on or about 970211:1433 educom@elanor.oit.unc.edu said:
>
>+COURT GRANTS COMPUSERVE INJUNCTION AGAINST JUNK E-MAIL
>
>+A U.S. district court in Ohio has granted CompuServe's request for a
>+preliminary injunction barring Cyber Promotions Inc. from sending
>+unsolicited e-mail to its subscribers while the commercial provider
...

Were I a customer of CompuServe, I'd ask on what basis CompuServe was
intercepting e-mail to me. In fact, a CompuServe account holder has made
just this point: "I'll decide what's junk mail and what's not."

Having the court system involved in deciding what mail is valid and what is
not valid is not my idea of a free society.

Having said this, the flaw remains that "junk mail" is "free" to the
sender. This is a flaw in the ontology of e-mail, and needs to be fixed.
Digital postage is one approach.

I'm not holding my breath, but I sure don't want a "District Court" deciding.

--Tim May

Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside"
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."