Spam

(noun) Unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) sent to numerous addressees or newsgroups.

(verb) To disseminate unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) to a large number of recipients.

Discussion
Spam, as well as being a trademark of the Hormel Foods Corporation for deviled luncheon meat spread, is an Internet term that describes mass, unsolicited advertising or solicitations through e-mail, Usenet postings or other online means.

The origin of the term spam for unsolicited commercial e-mail was recounted in Computerworld, April 5, 1999, at 70:


 * “It all started in early Internet chat rooms and interactive fantasy games where someone repeating the same sentence or comment was said to be making a ‘spam.’ The term referred to a Monty Python’s Flying Circus scene in which actors keep saying ‘Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam’ when reading options from a menu.”

One challenge in debating the issue of spam is defining it. To some, it is any commercial e-mail to which the recipient did not “opt-in” by giving prior affirmative consent to receiving it. To others, it is commercial e-mail to which affirmative or implied consent was not given, where implied consent can be defined in various ways (such as whether there is a pre-existing business relationship). Still others view spam as “unwanted” commercial e-mail.

Whether or not a particular e-mail is unwanted, of course, varies per recipient. Since senders of UCE do find buyers for some of their products, it can be argued that at least some UCE is reaching interested consumers, and therefore is wanted, and thus is not spam. Consequently, some argue that marketers should be able to send commercial e-mail messages as long as they allow each recipient an opportunity to indicate that future such e-mails are not desired (called “opt-out”).

Another group considers spam to be only fraudulent commercial e-mail, and believe that commercial e-mail messages from “legitimate” senders should be permitted. The Direct Marketing Association, for example, considers spam to be only fraudulent UCE. The differences in defining spam add to the complexity of devising legislative or regulatory remedies for it.

Spam can also be used as a delivery mechanism for malware and other cyber threats. Spam is made possible because the simple mail transfer protocol (“SMTP”) used for email does not require an email message to contain accurate routing information, except for the intended recipient of the email.

The quantity of spamming has increased dramatically over the last few years. In 2005, Congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act in an effort to regulate spam.