Spam Policy

SPAM is a luncheon meat. An odd luncheon meat at that. Invented in 1937 by Hormel Foods, SPAM has been a favorite of some for over 60 years.

Spam is a common term for Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) or Unsolicited Bulk E-mail (UBE). Some contend that the term 'spam' refers to a Monty Python sketch where actors drown out the others in the restaurant with singing/chanting of "SPAM! SPAMMITY! SPAM!" It's that drowning out of actual conversation that has it's similarity to UCE/UBE. Some others contend that it's a clever or convenient acronym that stands for 'send person another mail'. Regardless of how the term has been assigned to it, spam is an unwelcome part of almost every net surfer's Internet experience.

Hormel requests that spam (UCE/UBE) be referred to with lower case letters and SPAM (the luncheon meat) in all caps in accordance with its trademark.

Why is spam bad? For a variety of reasons. The evils of spam are cataloged in the news.admin.net-abuse.email FAQ. We especially credit the editor and contributors of the FAQ here. Thanks folks!

It is DialMaine's philosophy that spam is unwanted. We will be continuing to provide tools to our users to help them limit the amount of spam they receive. We will be encouraging our commercial and residential users to refrain from sending spam. Users who do send spam will be removed from our network and may be responsible for damages to our system. We bill by the hour.

The most common defense we've heard about sending spam is that "We didn't know this was a bad thing" or "We only paid this person to help me market my business." These are not valid excuses. Even if the marketing group uses someone else's network to advertise your web site with us, we consider that abuse.

Let us be clear on that point. If you use someone elses network or pay someone else to send your spam, you will be removed from our network. If the spam includes links to your Web site or e-mail links to get more information from your account on Dial Maine then you are spamming.

We're getting spammed, who do we complain to?

Unfortunately, we cannot help you unless the spam is originating from our network. You must find out the origin of the spam and register a complaint with their abuse department. Most ISPs have abuse@theirdomain.com addresses.

We already determined where the spam is coming from. It's coming from your network!

Please send an e-mail to abuse@dialmaine.com with the details, full headers of e-mail messages and your time zone. We'll examine the issue and inform you of what we find out.