Flashnet's Position on Spam Mail

What is "spam"?
EMAIL SPAM
The term "spam" generally is used to refer to UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email). The key word is unsolicited. If the recipient did not specifically request that information from you, it is unsolicited. If you are sending to email addresses from newsgroups,
web pages, or a purchased mailing list, then you are spamming.
Likewise, we do not allow UBE (Unsolicited Bulk Email) which is similar to UCE, but generally is of a non-commercial nature,
such a political or religious mass mailings.

NEWSGROUP SPAM
Newsgroup spam falls into two main categories - off-topic posts and cross-posting.
Off-Topic Posts - There are over 30,000 newsgroups and each is for a very specific topic. The name will be your best clue,
for example a post about skydiving obviously does not belong in rec.collecting.beanie-babies. If in doubt, look for the FAQ or
Charter for a group. You can post in group requesting it, or most will be available at http://www.faqs.org.
Here are some general clues for if a post is off topic -

1.Commercial posts (i.e. selling something) are off-topic unless the group is a commercial group, indicated by the words
"forsale" or "marketplace" in the name.
2.Groups that have city/state/province/country names in the title are only for posts that specifically relate to that area.
3.Binary posts (non-text files, such as pictures, sounds, executables, etc) are off topic unless the group is specially a binary
group, indicated by the word "binaries" in the title

Cross-Posting - Cross-posting simply means posting the same or extremely similar message to multiple newsgroups.

While we're on the subject of newsgroups, be it known that our Acceptable Use Guidelines specifically prohibit "Disrupting,
frivolous, repetitious or otherwise annoying postings which provoke complaints from the recipients". While disagreement is at
the heart of discussion, FlashNet users should maintain a certain level of decorum. Abusive/threatening posts, trolls (posts
specifically done to provoke arguments), or flooding a newsgroup with repetitious posting is not allowed.

Is it true that Congress bill S.1618 passed into law, which means that my message cannot be
considered "spam" as long as I include certain information?

First, all of the text regarding Unsolicited Commercial Email, or "Spam", was dropped from that bill before it was passed, as
you can see at http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/15257.html. Secondly, the bill was only passed by the Senate.
In order for it to become law, it would have had to have also been passed by the House of Representatives, and signed into
law by the President. Since this did not happen before the conclusion of the 105th Congress, the bill expired without becoming
a law, and, in order for it to become a law, must be reintroduced in the 106th Congress, and go through the entire process
again.


How are you defining abusive messages?
Abusive posting is harassment, flaming, or defamation performed in chat rooms, newsgroups, email, message boards, web
pages and any other form of electronic comunications.
Harassment is considered threatening harm to a person or property or otherwise harassing behavior.
Flaming is making a libelous, annoying, or otherwise offensive remarks about a person, ranging from sarcasm to personal
attacks.
Defamation is uploading, downloading or retransmitting harmful material that contains statements which are expressed or
imply injury to the reputation of another in false light.

What is hacking?
Hacking is breaching, or attempting to breach, the security of a computer or network which is owned by somebody other than
yourself, or other access or usage of a computer without the express authorization of the owner of the computer or network.
What are the 'hacking' or 'cracking' techniques mentioned in the Acceptable Use Guidelines?
These techniques include, but are not limited to:

Port scanning, which is the attempted access of various ports on others' computers, typically in an attempt to find a
vulnerability, and typically consists of attempting to access either a range of ports on a single computer, or a more limited
range of ports on a series of computers.
Usage, or attempted usage, of known "hacking" programs, such as "Back Orifice" or "Netbus", or of other programs
intended to give unauthorized access by exploiting vulnerabilities in a system or by gaining passwords without the consent
of the owner of the system.
Denial Of Service (DoS) attacks, which area type of attack, usually consisting of a mass sending of either email or other
information such as TCP or UDP packets, with the intent of rendering one or more services unavailable or unusable for
one or more people.
Actual or attempted gathering or distribution of the methods by which the above violations are committed, including, but
not limited to, the "Back Orifice" or "Netbus" programs, or other hacking programs, or the unauthorized gathering or
distribution of passwords, whether or not they were originally obtained legitimately, or the distribution of information
which can be used to facilitate any of the above. 


Pornography/Illegal Content on Web Pages
FlashNet expressly prohibits the use of customer web pages for the display of images or text that is considered pornography or
activities determined to be illegal by FlashNet. This is to say anything that is displayed on FlashNet's web pages that is not
appropriate for younger viewers or is considered to be pornography, will be dealt with according to the strictest penalties that
FlashNet is allowed. Also web pages that contain warez, copyrighted material, illegal programs, MP3s that are copyrighted and
protected are not allowed.
Where can I go for more information?
FlashNet's Acceptable Use Guidelines
CAUCE - a group of internet users dedicated to stopping spam
Abuse.Net - general information about spam
USPS on chain letters
CIAC on email hoaxes
         




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