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spam

Spam is most often an e-mail message sent to a large number of people without their consent. Also known as Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE), or junk e-mail, it is usually sent to promote a product or service. Since it is an unsolicited broadcast e-mail, it is characterized by its large volume (meaning spammers follow the traditional direct marketing ploys of saturating their intended audience hoping for a tiny return -- usually in the <1% to 5% range). They don't care about the large number of people they irritate or offend because there is always those few people who will visit their advertised Web site and order their product. Spam is the equivalent of the junk mail you get in your snail mail box.

Spam is also found in the newsgroups. Here it means "to send identical and irrelevent postings to many different newsgroups." Usually this posting has nothing to do with the particular topic of the newsgroup it is posted in.

The term actually "comes from a Monty Python television show in which one particular episode made so many references to the canned meat product that the rest of the show was overshadowed by the spam motif." It is considered to be a serious violation of netiquette and many ISPs are utilizing anti-spam tools and methods fight and pursue spammers.

The most common forms of spam in your In-Box are:

Chain letters;
Pyramid schemes (including Multilevel Marketing, or MLM);
Other "Get Rich Quick" or "Make Money Fast" (MMF) schemes;
Offers of phone sex lines and ads for pornographic Web sites;
Offers of software for collecting e-mail addresses and sending spam;
Offers of bulk e-mailing services for sending spam;
Stock offerings for unknown start-up corporations;
Quack health products and remedies; and
Illegally pirated software ("Warez").
Contrary to popular belief, "spam is not protected by national Free Speech laws because free speech guarantees you the right to say what you want (within reason), it does not guarantee you a platform to make yourself heard in." For example, your "daily newspaper will take any commercial advertisement subject to two constraints: (a) it must fit within their advertising guidelines, and (b) the advertiser must pay for the costs of distribution. Spam fails on both of these counts." Also contrary to popular belief, "anti-spam is not censorship because censorship is blocking information based on its content whereas spam-blocking attempts to keep the content in its proper place." Another example, your "local public library has a bulletin board where people can post for-sale ads and business cards; they would be rightfully upset at someone who inserted an advertising flyer inside every book on the shelves, which is the equivalent of posting a notice to every Usenet group."

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Cliff Watson