Whilst I certainly believe that that arguement may be used by spammers (and probably will), the concept of freedom of speech was that you could talk un-obstructed by any persons or organisations. The audience had the option wheather they wanted to listen or not, if they did not, they would simply walk away. With the advent of email however, we have lost the right to walk away and not listen, so now we have to open the mail, read the mail and decide if we are intrested in the contents of the mail, before deleting it. The loss of time and man hours could be significant enough to warrant charges maybe being drawn up against the spammer for theft of that employees time. and whilst the spammers will invoke the freedom of speech excuse, will it make any difference when in effect you have a captive audience who cannot even exercise the right to walk away. Wow, this is getting very legal (and I am a Network Engineer, not an attorney, Damn it ;-> (apologies to Dr. McCoy)) What is the legal perspective on this ? (clip notes please ;-> ) Jim ************************************************************************************** * Legal Disclaimer * * * *The opinions expressed within this mail are specifically my own and in no way refer to or relate to any * *ongoing business and/or the technical direction of 3Com Corporation, or any subsidiary companies or * *business units within 3Com Corporation and it's subsidiaries. * * * ************************************************************************************** Keith Moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on 06/15/2000 06:35:23 PM Sent by: Keith Moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Doug Isenberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> cc: "'ietf @ietf.org'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (Jim Stephenson-Dunn/C/HQ/3Com) Subject: Re: fyi.. House Committee Passes Bill Limiting Spam E-Mail > I've yet to read the whole bill (H.R. 3113), but I suspect (or, at >least, hope) that the politicians behind this legislation are intending to >draft a federal law that, unlike at least two state attempts, will survive >a constitutional challenge. And I hope that the courts will finally realize that freedom of speech includes the freedom not to have your communications disrupted by people who want to sell you things. Keith