Our report on the Cato event:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51370,00.html
---
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 2002 18:49:06 -0700
To: Declan McCullagh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: "Richard Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: FC: Events: Cato spam panel TODAY, EFF dinner 4/16, Big
Brother awards
At 01:44 -0500 on 27/03/2002, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> ---
>
> Subject: Spam panel Wednesday at Cato. -wayne
> Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 12:15:50 -0500
> From: "Wayne Crews" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> ...
> The Cato Institute
> invites you to a Policy Forum
>
> The Spam Wars
> What Can Be Done about the Annoying, Unsolicited E-mail That Is Driving Us
> Crazy?
>
> featuring
>
> Howard Beales
> Federal Trade Commission
>
> Chris Hoofnagle
> Electronic Privacy
> Information Center
>
> Rebecca Richards
> TRUSTe
>
> Jerry Cerasale
> Direct Marketing Association
Very interesting. This panel includes a member of the main organization
blocking or perverting all anti-spam legislation that has been attempted to
date. Specifically, I am referring to Jerry Cerasale of the pro-spam
Direct Marketing Association. The DMA uses its br..., er, I mean lobbying
muscle in Congress to try to ensure that DMA members can continue to spam
with impunity while the chickenboner scammers are wiped out. Heck, they've
even gone so far as to effectively say that we email server operators and
ISPs should be providing a free subsidy for the DMA members' postage-due
marketing.
Also interesting is the presence of a TRUSTe representative. TRUSTe has
never done anything against their members who spam, and I hear is now even
disclaming any authority over member email abuses. I've been watching
TRUSTe from the beginning. I was IS Director at a fairly large (and
thankfully now quite defunct) privacy violation firm when TRUSTe was being
formed -- we had a rep on the board. I speak from personal experience then
and since when I say that anyone who believes TRUSTe is about protecting
consumer privacy, rather than about putting bureaucratic delay barriers
between privacy violaters and their victims, hasn't been paying attention.
TRUSTe exists to take money from firms that want to violate privacy, and
who thus need a PR cut-out to induce victims to give up and accept their
abuse. Despite one unfortunate period where execs went around threatening
specious SLAPP actions against critics, TRUSTe has performed that PR
function admirably.
The FTC representation is interesting as well. The FTC has no mandate
regarding spam. Instead, they deal with fraudulent trade practices.
However, only some spam is for fraudulent deals. The real danger to the
usefulness of email for personal communication is from so-called legitimate
companies who decide they can use our mailboxes as their billboards without
providing us any compensation. That really has nothing to do with the FTC.
The presence of the two pro-spams along with the FTC rep, and the total
lack of any representation from CAUCE, CAUBE, or those who actually fight
-all- spam in the trenches at ISPs, is quite telling. Clearly, the DMA's
lobbying is paying off. They're attempting to have the email abuse their
members perform declared "not spam", while focusing all attention on the
poor stupid scammers. I therefore suggest the forum will be less than
useful for the real world fight against pro-spams like the DMA, who would,
as much as any chickenboner scammer, force us to eat their spam, at our
cost, on our private property.
That forum thus isn't going to shed any new light on the real issues:
spam as invasion of personal space/privacy
spam as trespass to chattel
spam as theft by conversion
Spam is all about prior consent for delivery. Spam is not about content,
no matter how fraudulent or disgusting the content may be.
Regardless, I will continue to refuse to let packets from pro-spams in the
DMA onto all private property under my control. Well-behaved visitors are
allowed, but those who paper my systems as if they were free billboards are
trespassers. If they want me to accept their crapola, they'll have to
negotiate a separate waste disposal contract with me, and I won't be cheap.
Richard
--
My mailbox. My property. My personal space. My rules. Deal with it.
http://www.river.com/users/share/cluetrain/
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