An interesting one line reply from Congressman Gejdenson's office.  I've
included my followup response.  It appears that for all the talk about the
information superhighways, much of Washington isn't up to speed.
 
At 5:29 PM 2/13/95, CT02.GEJDENSON wrote:
>this is part of the inetrnet, no censorship of any kind sam
 
I believe your position is behind the curve.  There clearly ARE banned
communications on the Internet: transfer of copyrighted material,
harrassment of various kinds (including, presumably, mail bombing of
shotgun advertisers).  The U.S Government has, or had, a legal action
pending against a distributor of encryption software.  There are
significant implications for the commercial viability of the Internet that
merit greater attention than a response that can fit on a bumper sticker.
 
The issue of "spamming" is NOT content, it's using a process that posts
identical messages to thousands of newsgroups regardless of their subject
matter.  At the very least, those who post such messages should be liable
for the costs incurred by recipients (MANY Internet users pay for their
email by the message or by the byte).
 
/s Murphy A. Sewall <[log in to unmask]> (203) 486-2489 voice
   Professor of Marketing                          (203) 486-5246 fax