Political Spam: Get Used To It
from the won't-that-be-fun dept
Salon has their article on political spam, discussing all the cases that have been discussed before, though focusing mostly on the lawsuit against Elizabeth Dole for spamming. What's more interesting about this article, though, is that it goes into a little bit more detail about those who are for and against political spam. Many politicians, clearly, are for it - which makes for an interesting set of questions when it comes to their judgment in evaluating anti-spam laws. Free speech advocates also say they have no problem with it. However, others suggest that it's trespassing. They admit that the message in political spam is free, and is welcomed to be put out there - but the method of delivery is going too far. The best example in the article is that a politician could dump a bunch of fliers from an airplane, blanketing a city. The message on the fliers is protected by free speech. The dumping of fliers, however, is littering.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
