administrivia: editorial on spam (no automotive or racing content)

[Richard Welty <rwelty@domain.elided>]

over the past week, many of you may have noticed a flurry of activity on my
part, as i've started going through and doing a lot of cleanup/fixup on the
various mailinglists, and (finally) moved the bmw-digest to the new server.

i'm also finding myself working hard on the spam problem. harder than i
really should have to, hence this message.

i'm getting very sick of this -- actually, i've been sick of it for a long
time, and i know that many of you are as well. there is a bill in the US
congress right now that will probably make matters worse rather than
better. rather than go through a long diatribe, i direct you to a web page
that i just put up on the digest.net web site, containing a press release
of relevance. the URL is

     /cauce.html

the bill currently in front of congress needs to have the spam-related
measures removed or drastically altered before it gets passed; the press
release contains detailed instructions on how to contact congress on the
subject. this a non-partisan issue -- spam is a a major problem for both
liberals and conservatives, not to mention centrist moderates like myself.

one final note: congress has gotten caught up in the first amendment
issues. i argue that these are not relevant. the first amendment does _not_
give anyone the right to convert someone elses resources to support their
freedom of speech. conversion of others resources is simply theft.
everytime a spammer bounces email off of one of these mailing lists they
are taking advantage. it is estimated that the cost of spam probably adds
several $ a month to the cost of everyone's $25/month unlimited access
account. you're paying for it and i'm paying for it; "just delete it" isn't
good enough.

richard