Re: Shooting the taggers

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 10:45 PM -0700 8/22/97, Bill Stewart wrote:
>At 10:57 AM 8/22/97 -0700, Tim May wrote:
>>There's a solution for taggers: snipers.
>>(I'm indebted to Chip Morningstar for this succinct solution.)
>
>I'm highly opposed to this inappropriate use of excess force.
>Snipers with paint-guns?  Sure.  Snipers with rock-salt guns?  Perhaps.
>Snipers with real bullets?  Sorry, it ain't worth murder.
>
>On the other hand, the parallels between graffiti taggers and
>SPAMMERs are fairly direct...

No, "spam" is like a telephone call or other contact one may not like, but
which is using a legal channel. Like someone knocking on  your gate. (It
may be that many of these contacts are "unwanted." So? By listing an e-mail
address, or a phone number, or placing a buzzer on a gate, one is
essentially saying "Contact me." Some of these contacts, even if
unrequested, turn out to be positive. Some are negative. All are within
legal bounds.

Grafitti is a trespass onto physical property. If someone enters my
property and spray paints my walls, this is criminal.

It shows how overloaded and ambiguous the term "spam" has become when even
a usually careful writer like Bill is equating criminal trespass with
spamming.

(In one of the newsgroups I read, an increasing response to unpopular views
is to call them "spam." Jeesh.)


--Tim

There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!"
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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