"SPAM" and "spam"

Please make sure you differentiate between big-S SPAM (a tasty processed meat concoction from Hormel Foods) and little-S spam (unsolicited e-mail, usually commercial).  Hormel would be delighted, of course, if everybody stopped talking about "spam" and started talking about "UCE" (unsolicited commercial e-mail), but it ain't gonna happen.

Nobody except vegetarians objects to "big-S" SPAM.  US WWII veterans tend to cringe at the name, because any processed meat got tagged with the name "spam".  Most of it was pretty ghastly.

Near as I can tell, "spam" as a term for unsolicited commercial e-mail or netnews postings came from a Monty Python sketch about a restaurant that serves only SPAM.  In the background is a table full of Vikings.  Every time a character says "SPAM", the Vikings all start yelling "SPAM!", drowning out anything that anybody else tries to say.  Newsgroups and mailing lists that don't protect themselves against spam, one way or the other, tend to disappear under it.

There are a number of organizations that are trying to rehabilitate spam as a "legitimate" form of advertising.  Personally, I doubt they'll have much luck.  Spam is used for advertising pornography, gambling, "miracle" cures, stock market "tips", and assorted "get rich quick" schemes (most of which, interestingly enough, seem to involve sending out spam).  Anybody advertising with spam is putting themselves in this category.

At a minimum, "legitimate" spam must:

• Not contain any forged message header lines.
• Be identified as such, certainly in the message header and preferably in the Subject line.
• Have a working return e-mail address.
• Contain the identity of the company that it is advertising.
• Pay attention to "unsubscribe" commands.

Some proposed regulations have these, and some do not.  Naturally, the advertisers want as few restrictions as possible, and they're the ones buying drinks for your Congressman.

Last updated $Date: 2004/12/15 16:22:46 $