The Definition of Spam - Do You Know What spam eMail Really is?

A message is Spam only if it is both Unsolicited and Bulk.

- Unsolicited Email is normal email
(examples: first contact enquiries, job enquiries, sales enquiries)

- Bulk Email is normal email
(examples: subscriber newsletters, customer communications, discussion lists)

Technical Definition of Spam

An electronic message is "spam" IF:

(1) the recipient's personal identity and context are irrelevant because the message is equally applicable to many other potential recipients;

AND

(2) the recipient has not verifiably granted deliberate, explicit, and still-revocable permission for it to be sent.

Spam is an issue about consent, not content. Whether the UBE message is an advert, a scam, porn, a begging letter or an offer of a free lunch, the content is irrelevant - if the message was sent unsolicited and in bulk then the message is spam.

Spam is not a sub-set of UBE, it is not "UBE that is also a scam or that doesn't contain an unsubscribe link", all email sent unsolicited and in bulk is Spam.

This distinction is important because legislators spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to regulate the content of spam messages, and in doing so come up against free speech issues, without realizing that the spam issue is solely about the delivery method.

Various jurisdictions have implemented legislation to control what they call "spam". One particular example is US S.877 (CANSPAM 2004). Each law addresses "spam" in different ways, and as a consequence, often has different definitions of what they cover, whether they call it "spam" or not. Spamhaus uses the industry standard "unsolicited bulk email" definition which underlines "it's not about content, it's about consent". As such, arguments as to whether UBE messages are covered under CANSPAM or are compliant with CANSPAM, are entirely irrelevant.

Other Reference Documents
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Webster's Dictionary: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=spam
Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS): http://www.mail-abuse.com/spam_def.html
Crynwr.com Spam Definition Document: http://www.crynwr.com/spam/definition.html
Other articles on the definition of "Spam": http://www.google.com/definition+of+spam

Maurice Clarke is founding owner of Spam Solution http://www.spam-solution.net dedicated to expand its fight against spammers. Offering a wide range of guides on email control and spam issues have led us to become a major force in the fight against spam. If you found this article useful please tell a friend about it and us.

Most people would define spam as unsolicited e-mail. They are e-mail messages which are mostly marketing schemes which crowd your Inbox.

If you sat a person infront of a computer, and asked them to remove all the spam messages in someone's inbox, you would expect them to achieve close to 100% accuracy

One thing that has plagued more or less all the Internet users is Spam. Thus, the biggest ask of todays Internet age is Anti Spam tools.

You may have probably encountered an increase in the number of junk mails in your email box

Winning the war on spam is a tough task, but the end for spam is near.

Does a national list to reduce spam exist or is it one of the latest email scams?

Spam is often thought to be such a difficult subject. But actually, it is not as difficult to comprehend as much as you think it is

Do you like spam? No, I'm not kidding. Everybody knows what spam is, almost everybody seems to have learned by heart simple advice like