TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: EFF: Anti-Spam Measures Block Free Speech

Re: EFF: Anti-Spam Measures Block Free Speech

Barry Margolin (barmar@alum.mit.edu)
Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:32:45 -0500

In article <telecom23.554.5@telecom-digest.org>, Ed Clarke
<clarke@cilia.org> wrote:

> In article <telecom23.552.5@telecom-digest.org>, Monty Solomon wrote:

>> EFF White Paper Reports on Collateral Damage to Free Expression in
>> the Fight Against Spam

>> San Francisco - Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
>> released a white paper (HTML - PDF) describing the effects of
>> anti-spam technologies on free speech. "Noncommercial Email Lists:
>> Collateral Damage in the Fight Against Spam" focuses on how groups
>> running noncommercial email lists are being harmed by anti-spam
>> techniques. The paper grew out of EFF's efforts to help MoveOn.org,
>> human rights groups, parents' groups, and others, deliver email
>> messages in the face of barriers that are aimed at stopping spam but
>> that also stop wanted messages.

> This is absolutely on purpose. Collateral Damage is a necessary
> technique to rid the net of spammers. If you give money to a company
> that facilitates spamming then you are no better than a spammer. Move
> the damn website to an IP range owned by a company that does not spam.
> Let the spam supporting service providers go broke because they have
> no customers.

Where does it say that this is the reason why MoveOn.org's mail is
being blocked? One of the other problems that the white paper
mentioned is mailers that assume that any bulk email is spam -- but
legitimate mailing lists will necessarily send out bulk email.

What bugs me is EFF's use of the phrase "free speech" to make this
sound like a 1st Amendment issue. The 1st Amendment only limits the
*government's* ability to curtail free speech. It doesn't require
organizations to facilitate any particular communications.

Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***

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