Ross Wright writes:

On Or About 20 Aug 96, 18:09, Rich Graves wrote:

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On Wed, 21 Aug 1996, Vipul Ved Prakash wrote:

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I don't know if there has been much discussion on the ethics of spamming here? Is spamming free speech?

Yes.

So is mailbombing the motherfucker, or more productively, virtually picketing his ISP until they kick him off for net abuse

That is the kind of self righteous crap that gives me the creeps!!!

So civily dealing with a net abuser gives you the creeps? THAT gives ME the creeps, honestly.

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Ethically? We don't talk ethics much here, but I'd say it's highly unethical to abuse a service paid for by the pooled resources of many.

I pay for my net access. I pay for my Sunday paper, it's full of ads too!! Ethics??? Let's rat out on the EVIL spammers!! Let's turn them into thier ISP!!! That's a load of CRAP!!!!

We /all/ pay for our access. Most of us work, most of us pay for the paper, most of us put up with ads. Spam is the price of free speech. One must either, in minor cases, ignore it and move on, so as not to encourage; or, in case of extravagent abuse, send word to the isp, spread the word on the net that xxx.com is a spammer's haven (and otherwise discouraging further memberships), as well as filling the sysadmin's mailbox until the spammer is deleted and we can all move on again. It's not a load of crap, it's reality. Everything provided for civil use and enjoyment will be abused repeatedly, it's all in how we deal with it. Greetings from $hell, Daniel.