Is spam really a problem?

[nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)]

I see discussion of spam here and everywhere on
the net. But who finds it a *real* problem, and
why?

I've been on the net for nearly 20 years. I'm
active on numerous mailing lists. I post to 
usenet. I have a website. In all cases 
(except this post) I use real email 
addresses.

Nevertheless, spam does not create a big problem
for me. Perhaps 10-15% of my home email is spam,
(much less at work) and I identify and kill it 
in less time than it takes me to sort out the 
junk from my snail mail.

Don't get me wrong; I don't *like* spam. But 
for me it's a minor problem, certainly not
worthy of legal remedies. I'm willing to suffer
a certain level of foolish annoyance gladly 
in return for liberty.

The only point at which spam is more than a 
minor irritation is when sexual spam turns up in
my home mail or in inappropriate news groups, 
and then only because I have young kids, who
I don't wish to be exposed to porn until they
are more mature (if you flame me on this, you're
missing the point of this post, and will be
ignored).

Masque.

PS: I'm slightly anonymous in this message
because I fear that if I used my real name,
some jerk would decide to sign me up for
every spam source on the planet, to prove
a point.

M