Online Spam Conference Scheduled by theglobe.com

Online community theglobe.com in New York said it plans to launch an aggressive anti-spamming campaign, including an online conference, to educate consumers about their rights in fighting mass-mailing of unsolicited commercial email.

The campaign begins with a live chat session at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 1 where members of theglobe.com will have the opportunity to submit their comments and suggestions on controlling spam in a commercially viable way on the Web.

An open letter from founders Todd Krizelman and Stephan Paternot to the over 1.6 million members at theglobe.com was also released, stating that “Even in the best circumstances, spam affords marginal benefit to a few individuals at tremendous cost to the entire community. We believe that people with such little consideration for the welfare of others make for extremely poor digital neighbors.”

The letter goes on to direct members on practical ways they can take action against spam and emphasizes the delicate balance inherent in conducting business on the Web: withholding editorial control over members’ content while taking a stand where individuals have entered into ‘spamvertising.’

Panelists at the online conference will include Ray Everett-Church, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email; Eugene Volokh, law professor, UCLA, Cyberspace law, free speech law, copyright law and the law of government and religion; Sanford Wallace, “Spam King,” former owner of Cyber Promotions; David Rand, chief technology officer, above.net (a large tier-one network deployed nation-wide), one of the first volunteers for the MAPS (Mail Abuse Protection System) project; Steve Krein, president, WebStakes, online promoter and email marketer; and David Sorkin, assistant law professor, associate director, Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law, The John Marshall School