Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pro-angmar.UUCP!achilles From: achilles@pro-angmar.UUCP (David Holland) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: junk mail Message-ID: <0.security.eff@pro-angmar> Date: 6 Feb 91 05:23:01 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Lines: 28 The Lotus Marketplace affair is only a symptom of a more fundamental problem: junk mail. People will continue to sell mailing lists and consumer information as long as it is economically feasible to conduct mass mailings. Raising postage rates is not the solution; that will put useful outfits, like, say, Performance Bicycle Shop, out of business along with the "You may have won $1,000,000" people. I suggest the following: Require that any person, company, or organization sending mail at anything lower than the rates available to us mere mortals be able to show proof that the victims indeed wish to receive the mail. A logistical nightmare? No, not at all. The USPS wouldn't have to do anything; any company that sent junk mail to someone who didn't want it could be sued, by that person, for $$$. Few companies would want to risk that, so the volume of junk mail we all receive would drop. Plus, the load on the postal service - and on landfills everywhere - would be decreased dramatically. And, of course, anybody who *really* wanted to receive all the mail could easily sign up someplace. Those companies that exist solely to send junk mail would probably go bust, but that's probably a blessing. :-) ------------ David A. Holland Internet: pro-angmar!achilles@alphalpha.com UUCP: uunet!alphalpha!pro-angmar!achilles #include Note - if alphalpha bounces, try "alfalfa" instead. #include As a LAST RESORT use Fidonet 1:322/337.