Hackers, Spam, Censorship

Under certain circumstances large numbers of people could die because of ruined Internet access. Hackers who tamper with the lives of others for their sick ammusement should be tried and convicted for attempted mass murder. Let's see how amused they are by life in prison.

We cannot ban unsolicited Email without banning capitalism itself. If we analyze the situation it becomes clear that the real problem is not spam, but the amount. This occurs because Email is free. We need only insist that reason prevail.

Our suggestion for legislation is that the amount of spam sent to any one address should be limited to one ad per week for two months followed by one ad per month thereafter.

It should be illegal for the sender to use an address that the recipient cannot reply to. The addressee should be able to request removal from any and all lists and that his address not be sold. These requests must be honored.

Unexpected pop-over windows should be illegal. Expected pop-over and normal pop-under windows are not a problem. There should be severe penalties, however, for using windows which cannot be closed without rebooting the computer. This should also apply to windows which automatically minimize or maximize other windows.

Huge avalanches of spam and unclosable windows are not acceptable behavior among decent business people. Such practices are clear encroachments and should be illegal.

These simple measures will get rid of all the real problems associated with spam in a way which is consistent with individual liberty and free enterprise. Until we have proper legislation, people can only boycott those who reach the point of immorality in their business aggressiveness (20).

Everywhere there are libraries, community centers, and senior centers which provide Internet access to the general public. Everywhere also there is arbitrary censorship.

Community institutions will, of course, ultimately be paid for by user fees, but even when they are, the same problems of access could arise and must be addressed as a separate issue.

Unfortunately, many of the present institutions are controlled by people who have no respect for individuality or liberty. Their computer labs are funded publicly, but the viewing polices are not public, but based upon personal or parochial values being touted as the "community standard".

All decent people want an end to both child and snuff pornography. These involve the worst possible type of encroachment against the victims. But these are exceptions.

The general rule in a free society must be to allow no unnecessary censorship. The narrow and particular must not be allowed to interfere with liberty on the Internet or anywhere else (21).

20. The author once received 650 spam letters every day. Usually there are several different persons who send from 3 to 8 each. In one case, until it was discovered and stopped, there were 40 every day from one person, but disguised to look like it was from many different people.

21. A friend of ours tells us about public access in his home town. "The public libraries are great. Their access policy is American and based on the Bill of Rights. Unfortunately, many of our city and county community centers are controlled by people who are not well psychologically and have jealous contempt for those who are. The censorship reflects their personal problems. We have nutcase religious fanatics and domineering butch lesbians acting as malicious webmasters. At one center the system is configured so that if there is any word the webmistress objects to in an Email you won't be able to open the inbox even to delete the letter. One man had searched for information about breast cancer for his wife and was awaiting response. He couldn't open the Email inbox because the word 'breast' had been flagged to shut down access. When he mentioned this to the morbidly obese bull sow running the place she said with a dismissive air of cruel exultant triumph 'Sir, I don't know that I want you viewing that word.' "