Michael Geist has been reminding us that, with other issues like net neutrality (among others) grabbing people’s interest, the scourge of spam is perhaps forgotten but hardly gone away.
My ISP uses two different filter systems to try to minimize the amount of spam I receive. Last week, the ISP successfully blocked 835 messages, perhaps costing me the opportunity to save a lot on prescriptions from Canada and leaving my wife without the benefit of me purchasing chemical performance enhancements. My PC filtered another couple hundred messages.
I am actually far more concerned about filters blocking legitimate mail – I had 10 messages blocked that should not have tripped the filters. Ten people who thought I was ignoring their urgent requests for information. To them I say – sorry. I promise, if I want to ignore you, I’ll do it to your face.
How do we address spam in legislation? Defining it is one problem. Effectively stopping it, instead of simply chasing the spammer off-shore, is another. As I wrote last week, we shouldn’t legislate etiquette. I think that a democracy gives you the right to be merely offensive and annoying – otherwise, my brother would say that I should have been put behind bars years ago.
Where would you draw the line?