"The panelists at an ongoing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) spam conference here couldn't even agree on the definition of spam, with some antispam advocates saying spam is all unsolicited bulk e-mail and some e-mail marketers arguing that spam should be defined more narrowly as unsolicited commercial e-mail that includes false subject lines or misleading e-mail headers."
The DMA (Direct Marketing Association) members balked at spam being defined as any unsolicited commercial e-mail. Spam really is in the eye of the beholder. Some people like getting unsolicited adverts. (Note to all the spammers out there, I'm NOT one of them.)
While some legislation for recourse is a good thing for consumers, the FTC can't entirely stop the problem. Anti-spam software and filtering in email clients and gateways will continue to be a requirement for keeping the inbox clean.
Posted by Diana at May 2, 2003 12:35 PM