And I've been on the Internet since 1984 - big deal. This is not
about just clicking a delete button. This has to do with someone
taking MY resources (and yes it does take resources to handle email)
for unwanted, unsolicited email. I consider email spam to be of the
same order as unsolicited FAXes. There are laws on the books
prohibiting such for FAX but not email. And I don't think I'd get my
'nose in the air' quite as high if the spammers wouldn't muck with
the header. If this business is so ethical, why do they have to hide
their return address?
> Tell me: if it's something that's worthless to you, why do you
spend any
> more energy than a click to be rid of it?
Many people pay for their connect time. There is not unlimited
access available to everyone in this country and around the world.
Why should they have to pay to receive and then delete unwanted
email? If the spammers paid for the connect time, then I'm sure
there would be fewer complaints.
But all of this is off-topic. The question Brian Clark raised is a
good one. If this agent is to be 'above board', then why doesn't it
adhere to the same standards as other web-polite spiders? I'm sure
many web site managers (myself included) would not scream quite so
loudly if we could be assured that this agent respected our
/robots.txt file.
-betsy