Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Michael D. Thomas" <mdthomas AT mindspring.com>]

>Absolutely. Having a good definition of spam is essential for not having the
>whole anti-spam fight devolve into an anti-email crusade.  The only
>difference between spam and non-spam email is spam is unsolicited.

Hmmm.... I don't think any of the pending Federal bills is powerful enough for
you.

Please anyone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they all focus on
prohibiting forgery of headers and requiring opt-out. Prohibition of email
solely b/c it is commerical and unsolicited isn't suggested in any pending
federal legislation I've seen. Is there anything like that at the state level?
I'll assume nothing at the international level.

Here's the federal legislation:

http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/list107.html

For instance, I think you would disagree with 2.a.3 of H.R. 95:

(3) Unsolicited commercial electronic mail can be an important mechanism
through which businesses advertise and attract customers in the online
environment.

Where as 2.a.7, 2.a.8, and 2.a.9 are on target:

(7) An increasing number of senders of unsolicited commercial electronic mail
purposefully disguise the source of such mail so as to prevent recipients from
responding to such mail quickly and easily.

(8) Many senders of unsolicited commercial electronic mail collect or harvest
electronic mail addresses of potential recipients without the knowledge of
those recipients and in violation of the rules or terms of service of the
database from which such addresses are collected.

(9) Because recipients of unsolicited commercial electronic mail are unable to
avoid the receipt of such mail through reasonable means, such mail may invade
the privacy of recipients.