On Sat, Jan 30, 1999 at 03:03:40PM +0000, Ivan Pope wrote:
> So, does anyone stand outside the offices of a Direct Mail company and try
> to stop the post being delivered? Or burn their offices down to stop all
> their business? Or threaten to burn them down unless they change their way
> of doing business? Because, that's the effect of the Vixie RBL system - its
> blackmail.
You've already stretched the spam-Direct Mail analogy way past the snapping
point, but if you want things phrased that way, it'd be more accurat to
compare the MAPS RBL to a large coalition of people who refuse to do business
with companies that are involved in any way with Direct Mail advertising, and
who aren't afraid to tell you so.
If you want to bombard people with advertising, there are way to do it without
making people pay out of their own pockets to transport and recieve it, which
is where the spam-Direct Mail analogy breaks down. Direct Mail pays for
itself. The costs of spam are paid by everyone involved *except* the people
who send it. In this sense it's a form of theft, which is why people get so
hacked off about it.
> If you did it with the post you'd get arrested.
> There is an issue of free speech here btw.
Yes there is, but it's not the issue you think it is. What's at issue is the
freedom to not be compelled to pay to carry other peoples' unwanted speech on
machines you control.
--
Lazlo Nibble - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://www.studio-nibble.com
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