From: Paul Robinson <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring MD USA
---
Roger Burns <[log in to unmask]>, writes on
Subject: Re: Advertising on the net
in: LISTSERV list owners' forum <[log in to unmask]>
(the same issue being discussed on the
Com-Priv list <[log in to unmask]>), as follows:
 
> On Wed, 27 Oct 1993, Keith A. Marrocco wrote:
 
> > Would it be appropriate for those of us with concerns about
> > this to make it known to the publisher, Strangelove Press, at
> > their email address ([log in to unmask])?
 
> Mr. Strangelove told me he would welcome such comments.  BTW he
> also told me that there were going to be a rash of books giving
> the impression that any advertizer can do anything they want on
> the Internet, and that in part his book was an effort to
> head off that mis-impression.
>
> If we do begin to get lots of commercial junk mail, I for one
> will -- instead altering my own lists -- seek to have the network
> privileges of the sender revoked, if they don't cease immediately
> upon request.  And if the sender has actually set up their own
> node, I shall begin to inquire as to how to have them
> disconnected from the nets in toto regardless of how much they
> may have invested in their brand new connection.  I don't have
> the regulations at my fingertips which would enable one to
> proceed along this path but I'm confident they're there.
 
Sorry, but you are wrong.  First of all, if the site is outside
the U.S., then the NSF's Acceptable Use Policy doesn't even apply
to them.  Second, more than 1/2 of the Internet is on commercial
trunks which have no usage restrictions and thus *you can't* have
them disconnected since their actions are not in violation of the
contract with their provider.
 
In fact, you should be very careful about trying to cut someone
off because you don't like the content of their (legally) sent
messages; there may be grounds for them to sue you for any number
of things including restraint of trade, violation of civil
rights, or other things; even if you don't lose, you will be
looking at several thousand in legal fees that you will have to
pay and *won't* be able to collect from them.
 
What it comes down to is that unless they are on a system that is
using an NSF backbone (and the NSF is going to be eliminating
that funding in a very short period of time) you will have no one
to go after to demand their disconnection.
 
Subscribe to the Com Priv list and listen to some of them
(Subscription address is [log in to unmask]).  They are
discussing this issue and others currently.
 
Another thing.  If a company were to create a series of
advertisements connected with an editorial, and NSF were to
threaten disconnection, it would be on very weak First Amendment
grounds, since in effect it would be ordering the discontinuance
of material based on content.
 
In short, what you will have to do is set up a kill file for
messages from known advertisers and ignore those addresses.
There is slim grounds to stop advertisement on the Internet now.
When federal funding ceases, there will be *no* grounds in the
future, short of some company deciding that it doesn't want the
money from a commercial site that is connecting to the internet
in order to post ads.  With heavy competition in the commercial
sector, that's not likely to happen.
 
---
Paul Robinson -- [log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask] /
                                       [log in to unmask]
Voted "Largest Polluter of the (IETF) list" by Randy Bush <[log in to unmask]>