The Boulder Pledge

  Please note that BoulderPledge.org is under construction.

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Under no circumstances will I ever purchase anything offered to me as the result of an unsolicited e-mail message. Nor will I forward chain letters, petitions, mass mailings, or virus warnings to large numbers of others. This is my contribution to the survival of the on-line community.

Devised by Roger Ebert at the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado, this pledge is the simplest method each of us can employ to begin to turn the tide of junk e-mail.

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Don't Give Your Credit Card to Criminals

Much of the spam that we receive is sent in direct violation of various federal and local laws. Most purveyors of spam are criminals.

A significant percentage of spam is transmitted over resources that do not belong to the sender. I have seen spammers openly claim that exploitable computers and proxies are "fair game." Nevertheless, I call it theft of services. It's no different than an illegal cable TV hookup or suggesting that it's acceptable to steal a car if someone leaves the keys in the ignition.

Medicine is one of the hottest spam trends. Virtually all on-line pharmaceutical sales to residents of the USA constitute the criminal sale of prescription drugs or controlled substances. There is little difference, under US law, between selling Viagra on the Internet and selling cocaine on the corner. Furthermore, a certain percentage of the prescription drugs sold on the Internet are inert, past-date or untested substitutions that could put the buyer's health at risk.

Some spammers are providing, or complicit in providing, criminal pornographic content that exploits children.

Don't Subsidize Criminals