Isn spam just the same as traditional paper advertising (third class or “junk” mail)?
No. Third-class mailers pay a fee to distribute their materials. Spam is the equivalent of third-class mail that arrives postage-due. Real people pay real money, in the form of disk space charges, connect time, or even long-distance net connections, to transmit and receive junk e-mail and newsgroup postings. Unless we utterly overhaul the Internet’s mail and news software to charge a mailing fee, spam is taking advantage of the cooperative nature of the Net. Indeed, spam is most like junk FAXes, which are sent at the convenience of the sender and the expense of the recipient. With third class mail, if you don’t want it, you throw it out, and it takes very little time. If you are interested, you open it. Spam email costs you and your provider money to receive whether you ever read it or not.
