: Advertisement and EthicsMar 27 2005, 21:37 PM

Almost everybody hates SPAM. I know I don't want to increase any parts of my body or send my money to Nigeria, but I still get those e-mails in my mailbox. Certainly I try fight it and I usually win the fight (since the spamers want me to look at the message and my spam filtering software gets rid of those messages, I consider myself to be the winner, although it's not 100% true). On the other hand, very few talk about POST-mail spam. As it is much easier to create e-mail spam, it is much easier to fight it too. Post-mail is hard to fight. There is no automatic tool that I can install on my computer to fight it. Furthermore, as there is a threat of getting a false-positive when my spam-filtering software is doing its work, there is even a higher probability of trashing what I need when I look through my mail. Why? Because it's always possible for that $700 check or even a bill to get stack between pages of some advertisement booklet. Hence, I have to look through almost every advertisement I get by mail.
But I have a solution! Or at least something that will lower that spam I get through the post office. If AOL thinks that its doing something ethical when it blocks certain servers, why can't Post Office do the same? I'm not going to say that it is unethical. Furthermore, I'm not asking them to look through my mail, just not TAKE mail from certain businesses known to send mail to “current resident”. It should be illegal to send out spam, so if Post Office is not obliged by law to not help others commit such crime, it is ethically obliged for sure. …An easy solution which will never be implemented…