DON'T SPEW A Set of Guidelines for Mass Unsolicited Mailings and Postings (spam*)
RFC 2635
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(June 1999; No errata)
Also known as FYI 35
Was draft-ietf-run-spew (run WG)
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Authors | Sally Hambridge , Albert Lunde | ||
Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | IETF | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | WG state | (None) | |
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 2635 (Informational) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group S. Hambridge Request for Comments: 2635 INTEL FYI: 35 A. Lunde Category: Informational Northwestern University June 1999 DON'T SPEW A Set of Guidelines for Mass Unsolicited Mailings and Postings (spam*) Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved. Abstract This document explains why mass unsolicited electronic mail messages are harmful in the Internetworking community. It gives a set of guidelines for dealing with unsolicited mail for users, for system administrators, news administrators, and mailing list managers. It also makes suggestions Internet Service Providers might follow. 1. Introduction The Internet's origins in the Research and Education communities played an important role in the foundation and formation of Internet culture. This culture defined rules for network etiquette (netiquette) and communication based on the Internet's being relatively off-limits to commercial enterprise. This all changed when U.S. Government was no longer the primary funding body for the U.S. Internet, when the Internet truly went global, and when all commercial enterprises were allowed to join what had been strictly research networks. Internet culture had become deeply embedded in the protocols the network used. Although the social context has changed, the technical limits of the Internet protocols still require a person to enforce certain limits on resource usage for the 'Net to function effectively. Strong authentication was not built into the News and Mail protocols. The only thing that is saving the Internet from congestion collapse is the voluntary inclusion of TCP backoff in almost all of the TCP/IP Hambridge & Lunde Informational [Page 1] RFC 2635 DON'T SPEW June 1999 driver code on the Internet. There is no end-to-end cost accounting and/or cost recovery. Bandwidth is shared among all traffic without resource reservation (although this is changing). Unfortunately for all of us, the culture so carefully nurtured through the early years of the Internet was not fully transferred to all those new entities hooking into the bandwidth. Many of those entities believe they have found a paradise of thousands of potential customers each of whom is desperate to learn about stunning new business opportunities. Alternatively, some of the new netizens believe all people should at least hear about the one true religion or political party or process. And some of them know that almost no one wants to hear their message but just can't resist how inexpensive the net can be to use. While there may be thousands of folks desperate for any potential message, mass mailings or Netnews postings are not at all appropriate on the 'Net. This document explains why mass unsolicited email and Netnews posting (aka spam) is bad, what to do if you get it, what webmasters, postmasters, and news admins can do about it, and how an Internet Service Provider might respond to it. 2. What is Spam*? The term "spam" as it is used to denote mass unsolicited mailings or netnews postings is derived from a Monty Python sketch set in a movie/tv studio cafeteria. During that sketch, the word "spam" takes over each item offered on the menu until the entire dialogue consists of nothing but "spam spam spam spam spam spam and spam." This so closely resembles what happens when mass unsolicited mail and posts take over mailing lists and netnews groups that the term has been pushed into common usage in the Internet community. When unsolicited mail is sent to a mailing list and/or news group it frequently generates more hate mail to the list or group or apparent sender by people who do not realize the true source of the message. If the mailing contains suggestions for removing your name from a mailing list, 10s to 100s of people will respond to the list with "remove" messages meant for the originator. So, the original message (spam) creates more unwanted mail (spam spam spam spam), which generates more unwanted mail (spam spam spam spam spam spam and spam). Similar occurrences are perpetrated in newsgroups, but this is held somewhat in check by "cancelbots" (programs which cancel postings) triggered by mass posting. Recently, cancelbots have grown less in favor with those administering News servers since theShow full document text