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If you are an Internet user, then the chances are very good that you have been spammed, repeatedly, and probably often, by people trying to sell you Viagra, or pornography, or life insurance, or miracle diets, or memberships in multi-level marketing schemes, chain letters, or other fradulent Ponzi schemes. You have probably also been spammed by one or more young DOT-COM companies who are just trying (at your expense) to get your eyeballs focused on their web sites. And if you have been spammed, then the chances are very good that you are angry about it, and that you would like to do something to fight back. There are a lot of different things you can do to fight back, and this is one of them. The good news is that this one takes almost zero time or effort on your part. In a nutshell, spammers are becoming more sophisticated, and they are constantly coming up with new, bogus rationales, excuses, and explanations which they use to try to claim that what they are doing is somehow not really spamming, but something slightly less than spamming. Of course, all sensible Internet users know when they have been sent a bulk messages that they didn't ask for, and thus, all sensible Internet users know when they have been ``spammed''. Unfortunately, however, a lot of spammers these days... some of them with a lot of money behind them... are trying hard to convice both the media, and your elected representatives that sending bulk unsolicited messages isn't really ``spamming''. They are using a lot of linguistic contortions and mumbo-jumbo to do this. (Some of it is quite silly, but not everyone notices that.) Sensible people who use the Internet on a regular basis can see through all of this nonsense easily, but many people in the mainstream media, and many elected officials who don't actually use the Internet themselves, have been fooled by the spammers who are trying to redefine ``spam'' in crazy ways that neatly exclude their own particular forms of rude, obnoxious, anti-social, and (in many cases) illegal net-behavior. We are trying to set the record straight, and we need your help to do it. This web site contains a correct, complete, and accurate definition of Internet spam that includes all forms of unsolicited bulk electronic messaging. It also contains a list of persons and organizations that are signatories to this definition, and who endorse the definition of Internet spam provided here. We are asking for your help to make sure that both the mainstream media and also governments around the world properly understand that objectionable Internet spam includes all forms of unsolicited bulk electronic messaging, regardless of such irrelevant details as whether or not the sender's address is fradulently forged, and regardless of whether or not you, the victim, are given an opportunity to request to stop being spammed after you have already been spammed. (This is a little like being allowed to request to stop having your wallet stolen, after you have already had your wallet stolen once.) To help us clarify for all interested parties that Internet spam includes all forms of unsolicited bulk electronic messaging, we are asking the Internet public at large, and you, in particular, to endorse the definition of Internet spam given here, and to become one of the signatories of this definition. Becoming a signatory just means that you agree with the definition of Internet spam provided on this web site, and that you want to help to insure that spammers are not able to use mumbo-jumbo and linguistic trickery to try to weasel out of the responsibility they should bear for their anti-social, network-clogging, privacy-invading behavior. If you want to help us make sure that everyone, including all parties in the media, in government, and elsewhere, do understand that spam is spam, and that spam is any and all unsolicited bulk electronic messaging, then please use this form to become a signatory. We need to have as many people and organizations as possible become signatories in order to insure that everyone everywhere will fully understand that when some big insurance company, or some big bank sends you an unsolicited bulk e-mail message, they are every bit as guilty of spamming as the sleesbags who spammed you to try to sell you Viagra, or that miracle diet, or that worthless penny stock, or that swamp land in Florida. Remember, you are paying for your Internet access, and you have a right not to be spammed by anybody or for any purpose. But the battle to secure this right is still being waged, and if we are going to have any hope of winning, then we first have to be completely clear about what it is that we are fighting for. Please help us to insure that all spammers are treated with the scorn and derision and (hopefully) legal sanctions that they deserve by becoming a signatory of our definition of spam. |
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Footnotes:
Please see the footnotes on this page. |