The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (CAUCE): A Press Release

Information on the ongoing battle against spam

Edited By Michael Webb, Editor-in-Chief, MikeWebb@CompuServe.COM

In this day and age, unsolicited commercial e-mail (or "spam" as it is popularly called) is a constant and growing problem. Though it affects some of us more than others, it is a problem of which the entire Internet community should at least be aware, if not in which it should be actively involved. Some people and organizations have taken steps to avoid and fight spam; a notable example is the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, or CAUCE.

Included here, content intentionally unedited, is a press release from CAUCE on the subject of spam. Thanks to Steve Greenfield for forwarding it.

CAUCE News **EXTRA** for Thursday, May 29, 1997

From the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail:

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URGENT! WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES NOW!
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With two "anti-spam" bills competing in Congress, and at least one more possibly on the way, Members of Congress are starting to decide which bill to support and which to oppose. It is CRITICALn that every CAUCE supporter let their Senators and Representative know that UCE isn a big deal to their constituents.

We urgently need every CAUCE member to write their Senators and Representative, asking them to SUPPORT H.R. 1748, the bill from Rep. Christopher Smith, R-NJ, and NOT SUPPORT S. 771, the competing bill from Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-AK. This is veryn important.

According to CAUCE head lobbyist Ray Everett-Church, Members of Congress are not yet convinced that UCE is something they should be spending their time on. In his lobbing, he is finding that some offices don't even know there's a problem with junk email! You have to tell them about it!

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OLD-FASHIONED PAPER MAIL IS VITAL!
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These need to be actualn paper letters. For whatever reason, paper means a lot more on Capitol Hill than electrons. (Savetrees.com's efforts notwithstanding.)

If you're not sure of who your representatives are, check the Congressional websites:

• House: <http://www.house.gov/writerep/>
• Senate: <http://www.senate.gov/senator/index.html>

The postal addresses for your members are:

The letter doesn't have to be long... two paragraphs is as effective as 10 pages. And you don't need to write different letters, the same one can be sent to each Member. (Just remember to change the mailing address!)

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POINTS TO EMPHASIZE
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• "Junk" email lets the advertisers make a profit while recipients pay the bill. This "Cost Shifting" was the problem with junk faxes, and is just as bad with junk email. If businesses are going to make profits, they should be required to pay the costs of doing business.
• Thanks to the CDA, Members of Congress are wary of anything that smells like a "ban" or "censorship". Remind them that this is notn an issue of censorship, rather it's about stopping deceptive and damaging business practice.
• Tell them that you support a system that requires an "opt-in," where individuals don't receive advertising they don't want, and don't have to fight to get themselves dislodged from mailing lists.
• Tell them that you oppose "filtering" or "Opt-Out" approaches because those approaches do not require the advertisers to bear their own costs. Filtering requirements cost ISPs and consumers more money, not less!

If you save spam, enclose one or two copies of some of the more offensive or obviously fraudulent spams you've received. Let them get a taste of this stuff. (However, we don't want to get them angry with us so don't flood them with 50,000 copies! One or two will be fine.)

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THREE LETTERS SPELLS "SUCCESS"
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We're making major progress! News reports have been very favorable and endorsements are rolling in from consumers and businesses all over the world! We have a good bill in Rep. Smith's legislation, one in which CAUCE representatives have had a lot of input. We need to get Congress interested in H.R.1748 and we need to do it nown.

Write those three letters and mail them today!

ABOUT THIS MESSAGE:

This message was written and broadcast by the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail. It is copyrighted (c) 1997 by the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail.

We encourage redistribution of items from this message, as long as they are not spammed anywhere, are on-topic, and include our copyright notice. When in doubt, post the URL of our site instead, or put it in your signature. Press, broadcast, and Internet media may treat this material as they would a press release. For other commercial reproduction rights, contact John Mozena (moz@cauce.org).

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You have received this message because your address was given as part of
the sign-up process at www.cauce.org or was signed up for the
CAUCE-ANNOUNCE mailing list. If you do not want to receive any further
messages from this list or were subscribed without your knowledge, please
send mail to cauce-announce-request@cauce.org with a subject of
"unsubscribe," or contact J.D. Falk (jdfalk@cauce.org) to be removed
manually. We exist to eradicate unsolicited e-mail, and, unlike spammers,
will honor "remove" requests.
*************************************************************************

If you have other questions or comments about this message, contact John Mozena (moz@cauce.org).

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