I'm not up to snuff on the intricacies of Geek Law, which is obviously a still emerging field. But I have a legal question which is also a philosophical and ethical question, and I don't know where to go with it, so I thought I'd start with this blog. Hopefully, there are readers better versed in cyber law than I am.

For reasons which are not entirely clear to me, people with whom I disagree have placed me on email lists which send me barrages of email which is sent simultaneously to many other people on the lists. I have asked to be removed from one of these lists, not because I'm more offended by the nonsense it proffers than I am by any other nonsense, but because the HUGE graphics take up a lot of bandwidth, and threaten to fill up the limited storage capabilities my service provider gives me. My polite request was ignored, and I continue getting gigantically large emails (along with everyone else on this list).

Anyway, this morning, a thought struck me as I struggled through another one of this man's logically incomprehensible diatribes. As it happens, I also get annoying emails from someone on the opposite side of the political spectrum, and I have had my struggles with them too, because a couple of the people on the list are friends, and I've occasionally been stupid enough to answer particularly egregious charges. (My answer greatly disturbed one of the list readers I DON'T know -- who demanded I take his name off the list -- a list I never started!)

Anyway, I'm tired of all this "list" business, and my idea is this: am I allowed to forward each list to the other list, thereby starting an email list war?

Everyone on both lists would be incredibly pissed off, but my questions are: Would this be ethical?

Would it be legal?

Would it invade anyone's "privacy"?

Indeed, do people who find themselves on these long lists have any anticipation of privacy?