On Tuesday 10 March 2009 09.49, Gert Doering wrote:
Hi,
On Wed, Mar 04, 2009 at 04:46:37PM +0100, Jan Pieter Cornet wrote:
Definition, yes. UBE is usually easier to define and is practically equivalent to spam. But pretty much everyone recognizes a spam if they see one. It is therefore easy for a human to detect spam and take corrective action against a spammer or spamming host.
This is actually *way* oversimplifying things.
Some SPAMs are obvious, of course, but there is a wide area of "grey" in between - some people send advertising e-mails that part of their receipients find quite interesting (because the mails meet their interests), while others consider them SPAM.
I object to this view. UCE is always spam even if some recipients "think" they like it. Just look at all the suckers that get fooled by scams ! UCE or spam is illegal in some countries, however legal authorities does not seem willing to hunt and procecute.
OTOH, we get SPAM complaints for info mails that people actually and provably subscribed to(!) [commercial service, people subscribe, forget about it, and later just report to spamcop instead of unsubscribing].
That's a problem with opt-in lists too, but that is something list-owners has to adopt to. The general public should not be carrying the burden just because "it simpler for list-owners". Any sender of mail has to take it's own costs.
Gert Doering -- NetMaster
-- Peter Håkanson There's never money to do it right, but always money to do it again ... and again ... and again ... and again. ( Det är billigare att göra rätt. Det är dyrt att laga fel. )