Re: [ot - sort of] spammer bites the dust (goodbye gtcdrom. com)

[Suresh Ramasubramanian <mallet@xxxxxxx>]

Sarcar, Shourya (MED) [Fri, Dec 01, 2000 at 10:45:31AM +0530]:

> # By the way, spam is not about content - it is about consent.  

> key quote. whoa !
 
 This is a catchphrase / slogan in the anti-spam community - I think it was
 coined by the late Jim Nitchals, founder of FREE - the forum for responsible
 and ethical email - http://www.spamfree.org
 
> Even if GT/or ShouryaROM would dump e-mails [unsolicited]  into Foo
> Swaminathan's mailbox on writing SCSI drivers or virus-protection-info, even
> THAT IS SPAM, if you have not __explicitly__ asked for it.
 
 Very good.  You got the point.
 
> Explicit consent is necessary, ie somekind of reauthorisation/authentication
> is a MUST otherwise , I would go to www.tux.org/lkml and subscribe my
> dearest enemy to the Linux Kernel Mailing List !!! If the lkml listerver(or
> who-the-fish) is running the list doesnot have a auth mechanism, then LKML
> (e.g) is guilty of SPAM, I think.
 
 Unconfirmed mailing lists are eligible for an RBL nomination -
 http://www.mail-abuse.org/rbl
 
> I do not know what teh legal implications of spam are, globally, and in
> India, but I think it is time we grew more conscientious about unsolicited
> mail. Some people (Suresh and others) are already doing a good job, I think
> they might need more concerted support from the community at large.
> </my_take>
 
 You dont need so-called "cyberlaws" (most of which are just a lot of vaporware
 and hot air propogated by Dewang Mehta and co).  Just about every ISP in the
 world (yes - EVEN vsnl and other Indian ISPs) have a clause buried somewhere
 in their general terms and conditions which basically says "thou shalt not
 spam" 
 
 If you break that rule, you have broken the contract with your ISP - and are
 therefore liable to be terminated.  Contract law is _very_ old, and very
 clearly defined.
 
 	+suresh

ps - this is getting waaaaay OT for LI-* - so anyone who has a take on this,
please mail it to comments@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx - CAUCE India is not running a
mailing list yet - so we just go on cc'ing each other for a while, till we
shift to majordomo (or at least an egroups list)

-- 
Suresh Ramasubramanian + suresh@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sysadmin, OyeIndia.Com + http://oyeindia.com
Staff meeting in the conference room in %d minutes.