Here's another viewpoint about the spam problem. Regards, Dale Mentzer ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- TipWorld - http://www.tipworld.com The Internet's #1 Source for Computer Tips, News, and Gossip Proudly presents: New Product Gossip And now for today's tip ... SPAM: WHY NOT JUST DELETE IT By Robin Garr In the early days of the Internet, "spam" (unsolicited junk email) drew particularly angry responses from its victims for a simple reason: Most service providers charged for service by the hour. For those of us who used CompuServe in those days, a "Make Money Fa$$$t" mailing was no joke when the meter was running at $22 an hour for 9600 baud. But even in these fat and happy times when most of us enjoy "all you can eat" deals from our Internet Service Providers, spam still generates a visceral response in many of us that goes beyond our "so what" reaction to postal junk mail or even telephone marketing. Why not just delete spam and go on? Here's one reason: Spam STILL costs, according to Daniel P. Dern, writing recently in Internet Week. Citing an informal survey of ISPs, Dern reported that spam costs the industry "tens of millions of dollars a month" in bandwidth, customer service, and systems administration. Nearly $2 of each customer's monthly bill can be attributed to electronic junk mail and other forms of spam, he said, noting that ISPs described removing spam, dealing with customer complaints, and pursuing spammers as costly, labor-intensive efforts. If you would like to get involved in an organized, civil effort to control spam, check out CAUCE, The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, http://www.cauce.org/ An all-volunteer organization, CAUCE (it rhymes with "sauce") advocates a legislative solution. It is lobbying to have junk email incorporated under the same federal regulation (47 USC 227) that outlaws junk faxes and provides civil penalties for violation. "Junk email is 'postage due' marketing," CAUCE's Web site says. "It's like a telemarketer calling you collect. The economics of junk email encourages massive abuse and because junk emailers can get into the business very cheaply, the volume of junk email is increasing every day." ---------------------------------------------------------------- Robin Garr is an early adopter who has a lifelong fascination with technology. A journalist and author, he has been associated with the online scene since the early 1980s. He is an award-winning Web developer; his own Web site, Wine Lovers' Page (http://www.wineloverspage.com) was one of the first sites on the Web and has grown into a leader in its market. You can reach him at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------- Is Bill Gates Full of Hot Air? Tell it to the list! Join our special moderated tech discussion, Technology Reboot, and follow tech news and give your views. Join today! More Info: http://www.topica.com/lists/technology Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright(C) 2000 Topica Inc. All Rights Reserved. TipWorld is a registered trademark of Topica Inc. ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics I wish the buck stopped here. I could use a few. This mail written by a user of Arachne, the DOS Internet Client WWWWW World Wide Web Without Windows http://home.arachne.cz Arachne DOS Browser Home Page To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
