Saturday, December 4, 2010

Spam--Part 2


Before we entirely leave the topic of SPAM- part one, I will confess that I failed to pursue my research far enough to include the classic Monty Python skit on same. For those of you who haven't seen this error corrected by astute blog commenters, I have included the YouTube above.  I have actually left out a lot of SPAM lore and culture, and this blog acknowledges that it has hit only the tip of the SPAM iceberg.

But before this image imprints itself too deeply, let's quickly move on to the other meaning of spam. Of course we all know what it is by now, though I will attempt to define it more precisely.  How did the email junk mail we love to hate come to adopt this name? And how does electronic spam really work? How effective is it? Do people really leap to buy Viagra through these means?

Well, as it turns out, that Monte Python skit is more relevant than I knew. (Go ahead, check it out if you haven't, because what follows will be a spoiler otherwise.) In the skit, the cast of characters slowly drown out all other requests off the breakfast menu in a dense insistence on Spam, Spam, Spam! as breakfast ingredient of choice. And at least the Wikipedia article I read says that the skit alludes to the "preponderance of imported canned meats" in the post-WWII United Kingdom as it struggled to get its agriculture back up to steam. So SPAM itself became a kind of spam, although in this case, it seems the real villain was canned corned beef from Argentina, which unfortunately for Hormel, does not provide such a good acronym.

Of course, all this was ripe to make a good metaphor for a bulk electronic message system that has tended to gradually drown out more legitimate or at least wanted messages unless some sort of filter is put in place. I was not surprised to learn that spam comprises a good percentage of email, but even so, I was flabbergasted that as a conservative estimate, MAAWG, the Message Anti-Abuse Working Group, has spam as taking up 80 to 85 percent of the world's email. Our piddling little conversations about our personal lives and passions seem pretty meaningless in this context.

SPAM wasn't just a metaphor in its early usage, though. Apparently, there were a lot of Monty Python aficionados on the early web who used to fill up electronic bulletin boards and the like with the word "Spam" over and over in order to force readers to scroll and scroll to get to more relevant content. Sometimes, they even put whole portions of the skit's text in the boards. It was often an insiders vs. outsiders tactic, forcing the newcomers to give up and leave. Star Wars fans and Star Trek fans used to attack each others' fan boards in this way.

Okay, I think we can all understand the role of spam as an annoyance factor on early message boards and games. But to consider its commercial value, we have to consider its relation to email. Why do people spam? Do they actually make money? Is there really a sucker born every minute? And do they all have a computer?

Well, as far as I can tell, the beauty of spamming is that there is no real cost to the spammer--the cost of spam is borne elsewhere.  I learned the term "barriers to entry" in the course of writing this up. Barriers to entry are the obstacles someone seeking to take part in a market faces. They may have to pay start up fees, get professional credentials and licenses, or be forced to compete with a larger rival that has access to better pricing, etc. Apart from the cost of an internet connection and a computer, a spammer has basically no barrier to entry. His--or her--profit comes from sending out an email ad to millions of people and then pocketing the money from the tiny one or two percent of people who actually reply back. When the numbers are this high, even a small amount of response can translate into a decent living. Here's a blog post on how Viagra spam works, that I found quite informative. One key element is that Pfizer still controls the market on the product in the U.S., but in other countries this patent has expired, which enables them to make a generic Viagra at a fraction of the cost.

According to this MSNBC article, often those in the shadowy spam world are affiliated in some hard to trace way to legitimate companies, which enjoy getting lists of potential clients as well as anyone. Put in this light, spamming doesn't really seem any more dubious than other corners of world finance we have come to know and love, such as the bundling of mortgages for unaccountable entities to hold.

Let me admit that, every once in awhile, I do enjoy a good halfway literate scammer. I doubt that putting your writing talents to work actually adds much to the income flow, but at least the results aren't tedious. Here is one that's been making the rounds of late. You may have read it. If not, enjoy...


Hey Family!


Just wanted to write you and let you know, how the degree program I tried out went.
Well, six weeks later, I graduated, finished & received my Masters Degree with no study required and %100 verifiable.


Yeah mom, I know you and Dad doubted it at first, but this turned out to be %100 legit. This opportunity was given to me because of the professional experience and previous course work I had accumulated.


I’m so excited mom and dad, this was a life altering opportunity & for once in my life I took advantage of it.


I already have jobs, that wouldn’t have given me a chance before, now they are calling off the hook! This really is a godsend.


Tell Susan and Cousin Joey that they better hurry up and call that # I gave them the other day.


Again these are the degrees they offer, BA, BSC, MA, MSC,MBA and PhD, and the number to call is (I'm deleting the number lest I unwittingly become an accomplice) Tell them to leave a brief message with their name, the degree they are interested in and their day and evening phone numbers. They will contact you soon after,


Anyway, much love, and tell the rest of the family I said hello


Love,
Your son,


John


P.s.
Mom, why don’t you send this email to a few of your friends? My professor told me that if we send over referrals the school can give us a scholarship.

22 comments:

  1. I'd never before associated Viagra with Spam. I will never look at tinned luncheon meat the same way again.
    ==========================
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  2. A guy I knew in uni used to make a Spam omelet and you know it wasnt bad at all.

    I've never eaten Spam au naturelle, however I used to eat plenty of corned beef which I always liked.

    I'm a simple lad a heart.

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  3. And dont forget Spamalot although that doesnt sound like my cup of tea. A little too broad to be classic Python.

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  4. Peter, you're right--you shouldn't associate Viagra with Spam,because Hormel would not be comfortable with that. Apparently, they don't mind it being called spam, but they hate it being called Spam with a capital letter, and have (unsuccessfully)sued companies like Spambuster for this very reason. Which I find sort of hilarious. Being a lawyer in that case would be a lot like being in a Monty Python skit.

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  5. I believe my sister and family saw Spamelot on Broadway. It sounds like it would be fun, but maybe not Broadway musical prices fun.

    We ate a lot of canned everything when I was a kid, though not Spam for some reason. But the status of anything canned in California has been in serious decline for awhile now. I guess it makes sense in a way, since we have an almost continuous growing season, but I can't help but feel that it's just another form of class snobbery in disguise.

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  6. Canned corned beef was a staple of the canoe camping trips of my youth at summer camp. That and packaged food made by a company called Gumpert's.

    With respect to Hormel's wish that Spam had not become part of the English language, an article in The Economist once explained why companies have no legal grounds to sue for generic use of trademarked names that have come into general use -- and why journalists are wrong to kowtow to such pressure.

    Needless to say, such good sense cuts no ice at my paper, which insists that Dumpster be capitalized. Some of my copy-deak colleagues, for whom obeying the rules trumps all considerations of common sense and understanding of language, will even capitalize the word when it appears lowercase. I tell them that they should do so unless they can ascertain that the large bin in question is in fact of the Dumpster brand. I have one or two colleagues with whom I can share such complaints. The rest are content to follow the rules, no matter how stupid they are.
    ==========================
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  7. Seana

    And you just live a hop skip and a jump from Cannery Row do you not?

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  8. Peter, I realized that about Dumpster only when I used the word dumpster in something I typed and MS Word corrected it to Dumpster. I think I left it as they corrected it, but now I wouldn't.

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  9. Adrian, yes, I have been to Cannery Row many times, though mainly when visiting relatives come to town, as it's pretty much a tourist place now.

    Santa Cruz also had an active cannery, which I believe packed fruit. It was still in operation when I lived a couple of blocks away in college, but was closed in 1989. I seem to remember that someone I knew then worked there summers, but it's hazy.

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  10. Seana, I am searching as we speak for the Economist article. If you want to search yourself and you have access to a database, look for “The Economist,” “language” and “trademarks.” The article might have appeared in 1997.

    It is no surprise that MSWord, produced by a big corporation, would favor another corporation’s interests and wrongly capitalize dumpster. It is more disappointing that we continue – wrongly – to capitalize it at my newspaper. It never ceases to surprise me how few copy editors care about such things.
    ======================
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  11. According to Wikipedia, here's the jist of the Hormel case:

    "Hormel Foods Corporation, the maker of Spam luncheon meat, does not object to the Internet use of the term "spamming". However, they did ask that the capitalized word "Spam" be reserved to refer to their product and trademark.[23] By and large, this request is obeyed in forums which discuss spam. In Hormel Foods v SpamArrest, Hormel attempted to assert its trademark rights against SpamArrest, a software company, from using the mark "spam", since Hormel owns the trademark. In a dilution claim, Hormel argued that Spam Arrest's use of the term "spam" had endangered and damaged "substantial goodwill and good reputation" in connection with its trademarked lunch meat and related products. Hormel also asserts that Spam Arrest's name so closely resembles its luncheon meat that the public might become confused, or might think that Hormel endorses Spam Arrest's products.

    Hormel did not prevail. Attorney Derek Newman responded on behalf of Spam Arrest: "Spam has become ubiquitous throughout the world to describe unsolicited commercial e-mail. No company can claim trademark rights on a generic term." Hormel stated on its website: "Ultimately, we are trying to avoid the day when the consuming public asks, 'Why would Hormel Foods name its product after junk email?".[24]

    Hormel also made two attempts that were dismissed in 2005 to revoke the marks "SPAMBUSTER"[25] and Spam Cube.[26] Hormel's Corporate Attorney Melanie J. Neumann also sent SpamCop's Julian Haight a letter on August 27, 1999 requesting that he delete an objectionable image (a can of Hormel's Spam luncheon meat product in a trash can), change references to UCE spam to all lower case letters, and confirm his agreement to do so."

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  13. I don’t remember the details of the Economist article, but I think the gist was that use of a word cannot infringe on a trademark if the use is clearly not intended for trade. Thus, for example, it said that calling a sparkling wine Champagne even if it was not made in the Champagne region is trademark infringement because it clearly could infringe on trade in sparkling wine.

    Journalistic use of the common term dumpster clearly intends no such infringement. Nor do people who traffic in or discuss computer spam or Spam intend thereby to infringe on Hormel’s trade in canned meat. The article singled out journalists for wrongly obeying trademark lawyers’ fantasies of control over the English language.

    Sadly, most people at my newspaper do not take the language that seriously.
    ======================
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  14. That Monty Python skit fits perfectly in so many ways. My son and I were just talking about Monty Python and The Holy Grail today, as he wants to see it. I hadn't realized it was rated PG, I remember it being pretty crude.

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  15. Standards of crudeness may have changed.

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  16. Yes, although I have a feeling I should have known where the term spam came from, I always thought it was more about the mixing up of a lot of different kinds of meat somehow.

    I was so wrong.

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  17. With all this talk I just had to have SPAM and I cooked it just the way I like it, but used Guldens spicy mustard instead of regular. Who says you can't improve on perfection. Have to update my facebook status...not.

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  18. I have to tell you, this discussion has me thinking corned beef, fried, mustard ...

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  19. I am actually not feeling too enticed into the canned meat realm right now, but that's probably simply because I had a large burrito for lunch.

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  20. I understand they love SPAM in Hawaii!

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  21. Oh, yes! That was in Spam--Part 1!

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  22. Yes, it was in Part One, but don't worry. I think the love of Spam by the people of Hawaii can not be overstated.

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