Glossary

These definitions are merely illustrative; they should not be considered authoritative.

Authority

Computer crime laws frequently prohibit various types of computer use if they are performed "without authority." In some instances this may include use of a provider's computer facilities in violation of the provider's policies.

Bulk

Sent in large quantities, usually within a brief span of time; may include sets of personalized or other similar messages as well as identical messages.

CAUCE

The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail, an antispam advocacy group.

Commercial

Generally refers to advertisements for goods and services, although definitions of the term vary considerably, and some types of advertisements (such as employment notices) may be excluded from many definitions. Some jurisdictions limit the term to "for-profit" offers, and some explicitly include communications that indirectly promote or merely solicit interest.

E-mail

Electronic mail. Normally refers to electronic mail transmitted over the Internet using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

Exclusion list

A list of addresses to which a sender does not send unsolicited messages, often compiled from opt-out requests submitted to the sender. Alternatively, a universal exclusion list could be maintained centrally (for example, by a government agency). Also called a "do-not-email" or "do-not-call" list.

FCC

Federal Communications Commission.

FTC

Federal Trade Commission.

Harvesting

The practice of collecting e-mail addresses from web sites, user directories and profiles, Usenet postings, domain name registration records, and other sources.

Header

The top portion of an e-mail message, separated from the body of the message by a blank line. The header of a message normally contains the e-mail addresses and often the names of the sender and recipient of the message, the subject, the date, and routing information. Many e-mail programs display only a simplified version of the header by default.

IP address

A numeric address, normally expressed as a "dotted quad" (four numbers up to 255, separated by periods), that identifies a computer that is connected to the Internet. IP addresses normally can be converted to or from alphanumeric domain names, although the two do not necessarily correspond on a one-to-one basis.

ISP

Internet service provider. (Nearly all ISPs provide e-mail services, but many e-mail service providers are not ISPs.)

Label

A textual identifier placed within an e-mail message -- usually in the subject line -- describing a characteristic of the message. For example, "ADV:" at the beginning of the subject line could be used to indicate that a message contains an advertisement.

MAPS

Mail Abuse Prevention System, the organization that maintains the Realtime Blackhole List and other mechanisms designed to combat spam.

Notice

A provider may be permitted to enforce its policies against an entity that sends e-mail using the provider's resources or equipment, even if the sender has not explicitly agreed to abide by those policies, as long as the sender has previously received notice of the policies. If constructive (rather than actual) notice is sufficient, it might include the posting of policies on the provider's web site, automatic transmission of a notice by the provider's SMTP server in each mail transfer, or some combination of these or other methods.

Open relay

An SMTP server which will relay e-mail to and from any Internet address. (Many SMTP servers now require either the sender or the recipient to be a local user in order for a message to be processed.)

Opt-out

Normally, a request not to receive further communications from a particular sender (i.e., to be placed upon a sender's exclusion list), or not to have one's e-mail address or other information provided to third parties. In an "opt-out" regime, senders may send unsolicited messages to persons who have not submitted opt-out requests; this is distinguished from an "opt-in" regime, in which messages may be sent only to those who have previously requested them.

Pandering

Sexually explicit, provocative, or offensive material. Under U.S. postal laws, recipients of mailed advertisements have the discretion to decide what they consider to be pandering, and may request that a sender be ordered to stop sending pandering advertisements.

Policies

Usually refers to a provider's acceptable use policies. Most providers prohibit the use of their facilities for sending various forms of unsolicited e-mail; some policies explicitly apply to messages sent to subscribers from elsewhere on the Internet. Many providers post their policies on the web; some also embed policy references in SMTP server messages.

Provider

An Internet or electronic mail service provider, sometimes referred to as a "destination operator."

RBL

Realtime Blackhole List, a database of IP addresses of e-mail servers that have been used to send spam.

Recipient

The person or e-mail account to which an e-mail message is addressed, or by whom it is received.

Relaying

The routing of an e-mail message through an SMTP server, usually an open relay that is unrelated to both the sender and the recipient. Also called "third-party relaying."

Reply/return address

An e-mail address that appears in a header line that begins with "From" or "Reply-to."

Routing information

One or more lines contained in the header of an e-mail message, describing the path traveled by the message from the sender to the recipient. Many unsolicited messages contain partially false or incomplete routing information.

Sender

The person who transmits a message, or (in some instances) a person on whose behalf a message is sent.

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol -- the standard method used for transmitting e-mail between servers on the Internet, or from an e-mail client to a server for subsequent forwarding. (Other e-mail protocols include POP and IMAP, which are commonly used by e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a server.)

SMTP server

A computer that forwards Internet e-mail messages using the SMTP protocol, using Sendmail or similar software.

Spam

Usually refers to either UBE or UCE. (The term "spam" has also been used to refer to phenomena other than e-mail, including Usenet articles and search engine submissions.)

Spamware

Software specifically designed to send e-mail messages containing false routing information.

Subject

One of the lines normally included in the header of an e-mail message, intended to describe the topic of the message.

Subscriber

A customer of a provider.

UBE

Unsolicited bulk e-mail.

UCE

Unsolicited commercial e-mail.

Unsolicited

Sent to a person who has not specifically requested to receive communications from the sender and with whom the sender does not have a prior business or personal relationship, or to a person who has previously requested not to receive communications from the sender (i.e., has opted out).

David E. Sorkin

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