The First Spam Message
It has now been 30 years since the first spam message was sent out on ARPANET on 1st May 1978. It was an unsolicited email on the closed US Government computer network advertising a seminar
In the ensuing discussion about censorship on the net, one user raised the possibility of a separate, commercial net, such as the first dialup technology being implemented:
I would greatly appreciate it if all comments about this make a distinction between ARPAnet mail and mail on another (possibly commercial) network. Saying that electronic junk mail is a no-no on the ARPAnet doesn’t answer the question. I shudder to think about it, but I can envision junk mail being sent to people who implement Dialnet, and no way it could be prevented or stopped. I guess the ultimate solution is the command in your mail reading subsystem which deletes an unwanted message.
Richard Stallman, hacker and founder of the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation, defended the commercial potential of the net:
Would a dating service for people on the net be “frowned upon” by DCA? I hope not. But even if it is, don’t let that stop you from notifying me via net mail if you start one.
With discussions about Net Neutrality now being widespread, should we have seen it coming? The suggestion of splitting the net in two has resurfaced recently, but would that really help?
Read the message in full at Templetons.com
Hi Nice blog, I found whilst searching in google. Im not sure what I should do here, I hope this posts. Ill bookmark your blog, thanks.
Interesting post and it is actually food for thought and I agree with alot of it. Which makes this blog more interesting then some of the others I have
been on today.
Cheers.