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!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."