At 09:40 AM 2/5/96 -0500, Daniel Dern wrote (as part of a much longer post):

>I'll bet you a nickel that the volume of unsolicited junk email
>continues to grow, and another nickel that "the market will speak" --
>as in, people who get sick of wasting their time and money receiving
>and deleting unwanted messages.

Hmmm. Define "grow" in a meaningful sense.  I agree that it will grow, don't
necessarily believe the sky will fall as a result of its growth.  As for the
market forces... that has been my point from the beginning: The market will
speak. It will become unprofitable or technologically difficult to spam and
it will die a natural death. Or it won't and you'll have to resort to the
old delete button -- the high-tech equivalent of the bin that is underneath
my home snailmail box and into which piles of recyclables are deposited daily.


>Again, I urge you all to spend a week or so lurking in the 
>news.admin.net-abuse.misc Newsgroups.  (Caution, there's the usual 
>number of whackos, bozos, and flamewars going on there...).  

Now, Daniel, now you are getting at what I really think is the most
interesting part of this whole thread on spamming. That is, the group of
net.vigilantes that rule at newsgoups like n.a.n-a.m.  I spent a year there
one day and -- MAN OH MAN -- what a nightmare.

I'm going out on a limb here, and I will admit up front that I have no
statistics to back this up (so sue me). But here is my somewhat educated and
experienced gut feeling, and a prediction: Net vigilantes are dinosaurs and
they're going the way of the dinosaurs now.

There, I said it. Heresy? Perhaps. Ad hominen? Not meant to be. Just an
observation. 

Let me clarify. One to two years ago I think the core of purist net cops
ruled the show.  Daniel himself had the time to read through newsgroups
where my company posted information -- in direct response to questions --
about access numbers for Internet service. In a very polite and helpful way,
he predicted at that point that my company would get torn up by
anti-commercialists. He was wrong. His was the only complaint.  Now, I will
admit at the time to quaking in my shoes. I felt like I was really going out
on a limb to plot a marketing strategy that included posting to the "access
wanted" types of newsgropus advertising access for sale.  I expected to be
flamed. I wasn't, it turns out, but I expected it.

My oh my how times have changed. Today, marketing rules the WWW, if not the
newsgroups (which, IMHO are also becoming dinosaurs though they have been
given new life by tools like Netscape's news reader). I would not hesitate
to post such a message, not for a second.

The difference between then and now is that the Internet of old was a
government and university sponsored animal, designed for not-for-profit use
and quite appropriately protected by people like Daniel from being overrun
and disabled by intrusive business-types.

Today, the Internet/Web world is ruled by business. Most people who access
it pay for it, all ISPs (like my company) pay big bucks for the right to
connect in.  At this point, my question becomes "Who the hell are you to
tell me what is and isn't an acceptable use of this thing I'm *paying* to use."

An analogy, if you will. The public network of emergency telephones roadside
would not appropriately be used to conduct a business meeting because if
everyone stopped and used them for business meetings they wouldn't be
available when someone gets a flat tire and needs to call for help.  Right?
But if I have a cell phone that I'm paying for, I guess I have the right to
use it for any darn thing I want to. (OK, OK, there are examples -- like
arranging a drug sale -- that I probably can't use it for, but that is
governed under other laws.)

It used to be that the Internet wasn't for sale. Today, it's easily for
sale. The same rules don't apply, and we don't have the same need for
net.cops.  

I most certainly don't have all the answers. I would agree that self
regulation would be better than government regulation and the logical
extension of my position may very well lead somewhere I'm not eager to go.
That is a given and it is something I need to think about as well. But I'll
never again feel the need to quake in my shoes because I might be taken to
task by these same net.cops.dinosaurs.

Kristine







Kristine Loosley
kris@cris.com; kris@concentric.net
Public Relations Manager
Concentric Network Corp.
Cupertino, CA
408.342.2808
408.342.2810 (fax)
http://www.concentric.net


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