Peter writes: > Most Usenet groups would probably turn up an > example or two ... As I've indicated, a great many Internet users never post to USENET and do not participate in mailing lists. The online archiving of mailing lists is a bad idea, IMO, independently of the copyright issues it raises. But even when lists are archived online, given that most people do not post to lists, this is not necessarily a problem for spam address harvesters. > see above... What I saw above does not alter my opinion. Only a minority of the Internet community posts to mailing lists or USENET. > Please stop thinking the entire world is just > like you. I do not believe that. For example, I'm quite confident that I receive considerably more spam than most people do. > Put another way, I'm happy for you that spam is > not yet a major problem for you. It's a major problem > for lots of people on this list. This list is probably not a representative cross-section of all Internet users. > More importantly, it's perceived to be a growing problem > for the rest of the Internet, for which a solution will > be needed in the not too distant future ... It is a growing problem. How urgently a solution is required is more of an open question.