Spam

Spam refers to widely transmitted, inappropriate, and unsolicited online messages. Most historical references trace the original usage to the early 1990s. The term most likely originated among users of the USENET bulletin-board system. USENET allows people to post messages in topically divided newsgroups that can be read and responded to by hundreds of others on computers connected to the Internet. On USENET, spam refers to messages, usually of a commercial nature, posted to multiple newsgroups without regard to the topic of the newsgroups. The term spam is now used in a variety of different online forums, including chat forums, where it refers to large amounts of repetitious or meaningless text, and email, where it usually refers to unsolicited advertisements. In general, spam increases the “noise-to-signal” ratio of online communication, decreasing its worth and usability.

The word spam comes from two sources. First, SPAM refers to a canned pork product produced by Hormel Foods. The British comedy group Monty Python spoofed SPAM's popularity in post–World War II Britain in a comedy sketch. In the skit, the reading of a breakfast menu containing numerous mentions of SPAM is repeatedly drowned out by a chorus of Vikings singing “SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM,” over and over. Thus the use of the term SPAM in the Monty Python skit represents two features that define online spam: mindless repetition and the drowning out of useful content.

Originally, the USENET use of spam referred only to commercial messages sent to multiple newsgroups. However, spammers soon became more sophisticated in their techniques, acquiring email addresses from USENET and other online postings and sending commercial messages directly through email. Such email messages are also referred to as UBE (unsolicited bulk email) or UCE (unsolicited commercial email). Some people have even referred to any unsolicited email as spam, although clearly there is a difference between “unsolicited” email from people one knows or would desire contact with, and unsolicited email from companies randomly marketing a product of no interest to the receiver of the email.

One of the most famous early cases of USENET spamming involved the attorneys Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel. In April 1994, they posted a message to 6,000 USENET newsgroups advertising their services in assisting non-U.S. citizens in entering the then-upcoming “green card lottery.” The scale of their action was unprecedented, and the spamming was considered particularly egregious because the content: 1) was of little use to most readers; 2) was of questionable legality; and 3) seemed to many to be a scam, since it proposed to charge a fee for the service of helping applicants fill out a form for a lottery that was free to enter. The negative response from USENET users was also unprecedented. Even simple email requests to Canter and Siegel's service provider to terminate their account were so numerous that they crashed the service provider's computers multiple times.

Some users took more aggressive anti-spam actions. One particularly famous one came from an individual or individuals called Cancelmoose. Any USENET posting can be canceled by the sender. The [Page 417]cancellation message spreads throughout the Internet, canceling any appearance of the posting. It is also possible to forge a cancel message to make it look as if it has come from the original sender. Forging cancel messages is considered extremely bad form, but Cancelmoose considered it a justifiable action in the face of Canter and Siegel's massively disseminated and inappropriate messages. (Cancelmoose also developed techniques for stopping spam received in private email, and can be found today at http://www.cm.org.) Despite considerable bad press, Canter and Siegel remained unrepentant, and went on to publish a book instructing other commercial enterprises in spamming methods.

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