May 3, 2008
Spam Turns 30
Today is spam’s birthday. On May 3, 1978, Gary Thuerk sent an unsolicited sales email advertising Digital Equipment Corporation’s new line of computers to 393 Arpanet users.
“I don’t see any place for advertising on the ARPAnet,” user Mark Crispin wrote at the time. “Certainly not the bulk advertising of that DEC message. From the address list, it seems clear to me that the people it was sent to were the Californians listed in the last ARPAnet directory. This was a clear and flagrant abuse of the directory! I am not sure as to how far this should be carried though.”
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