Is spamming illegal? Is a spammer a criminal?
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Is spamming illegal? Is a spammer a criminal?
Thanks for the link. I read it.
It seems there is a definition of "spam" there, and a few cases have been heard in court, but the overall impression I left with was "spamming is alive and well" and if you follow the rules of "you can spam", then, you can spam.
(1) Depends (see Wifelags' response, above).Quote:
Originally Posted by Dino
(2) Should people be forced people to accept unsolicited, *commercial* correspondence? No, but I don't see how that amounts to a criminal act, either (that is, unless it can be established that the material is indeed "harmful" in some way). A civil (ie: tort) case is generally most appropriate, IMO.
I don't think spamming should face any legal opposition regardless of how annoying it is. It simply isn't doing anything I find morally wrong and it's absolutely not a new concept, it's just a digital version of some very ancient sales tactics.
I think you were bested in this duel :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by Substantiani
Spam IS harmful in many ways:Quote:
Originally Posted by Sebastiani
1 - It wastes people's bandwidth when they have to download that crap.
2 - If there is a swarm of Spam, it can cause a Denial of Service attack which could greatly affect companies that depend on E-mail on a daily basis.
3 - The dumbasses that actually fall for it and buy the stuff they're selling are usually being swindled out of their money, since the product they're selling is usually fake anyways.
If it was up to me, I'd give Spammers the death penalty. But then again, that's just me. ;)
4 - Even when all is normal, sorting spam from real email can soak up many hours of employee time.Quote:
Originally Posted by cpjust
My time at home is just as valuable to me as my time at work is to my employer. Having to hunt through a "junk mail" folder once in a while to make sure I'm not missing any legitimate e-mail, I am wasting time that could be spent in other pursuits. In effect, the spammers are stealing my time regardless of whether or not I succumb to their "offers". Even if I have a sophisticated junk-mail filter that is 100% effective (and none are that I have ever seen), I still had to spend time learning to use it and configure it.Quote:
Originally Posted by CommonTater
This to me is akin to a door-to-door salesman knocking on my door every few minutes. If I don't keep looking to see who it is, I may miss my neighbor coming over to visit. Just because it is easier to create technology to handle junk e-mail doesn't make it any less of a nuisance.
What sort of laws would we enact if suddenly there were masses of people walking from door to door at all hours, knocking on doors, being pushy about selling their product or leaving big posters on the porches/doorsteps of those who don't answer the door? Especially if some of them were just trying to get me to simply open my front door so they could push past me and either start stealing my things, or worse hold my kids hostage to force me to help them get into my neighbors' houses...
The act of spam itself may not be illegal (depending on where you live), therefore a spammer may not be a criminal in the sense of doing something illegal. However it has been shown that there are a small number of spammers that are responsible for the vast amount of junk we get. I think they SHOULD be treated as criminals because, despite the fact that there are so many junk mail filters available, actions against the servers that host spammers (where when one is taken down spam drops significantly for a short time), almost universal outrage across the internet about spam, etc, they persist in providing this "service" that no one wants. (I won't go into the security risks because that's not fair to a "legitimate spammer" who is just trying to make money in an annoying way.)