From: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 1997 07:11:04 -0800 (PST)
To: "Cynthia H. Brown" <cynthb@sonetis.com>
Subject: Re: More on digital postage
Message-ID: <199702161511.HAA17755@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 1:09 AM -0500 2/16/97, Cynthia H. Brown wrote:

>Here in Canada, the CRTC (Canadian Radio & Telecomms Commission) put
>out rules limiting the time of day, etc. for phone spam (voice or
>fax).  Does anyone out there have the specifics of the CRTC regs?

"Spam" has rapidly become one of those overused, overloaded, meaningless
words. Everything bad on the Net these days is labelled "spam."

For the phone example in Canada, just what is "spam"?

-- Is it the semi-traditional definition of "spam," i.e., a phone call made
to thousands of sites? (At the same time? Sequentially? How?)

-- Is it a robo-dialer, with no human at the other end?

-- Or is it merely an "unwanted phone call"?


As I see it, the danger of criminalizing "unwanted phone calls" is obvious.
(Though obviously the courts and prisons are not about to be filled up with
people who committed the heinous crime of making an unrequested phone call.)

The danger of all "junk mail" and "junk phone call" laws is that they give
power to the government to decide on what is junk and what is not.

Not something we should support.

--Tim May

Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside"
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."