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Indeed, once NZ's proposed anti-spam legislation is passed, there's probably a good chance that such emails would be legally classified as spam if they failed to offer an opt-out provision.

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Of course I suspect that those ISPs who make money by selling access to their users to advertisers or who carry paid advertising in these regular monthly newsletters will change their terms and conditions pretty quickly (if they haven't already).

Take the ISP Kiwi Online for example...

Check out the "ADVERTISING" clause on their Terms and Conditions page.

It would appear that one of the T&C you accept by using KOL is that you will be spammed. What's more, it looks likely that some of that spam may well be of a nature that is not suitable for under-18s.

I wonder how many people using KOL (and perhaps other ISPs with similar T&C) have ever even read all the fine-print and don't realise that some of that spam they're getting is actually being sanctioned or created by the very company they're paying for connectivity.

One can only wonder whether this technology might be more to ensure that the ISP's spam doesn't get lost in a wave of external stuff eh? And, if your ISP is going to spam you, what's the point in having spam-blocker software anyway?

I've mentioned in previous columns that every Net user should check their ISP's T&C on a regular basis just to make sure there are no shocks or surprises lurking there. Remember, by continuing to use the service, you're automatically accepting any changes that may have been made since you signed up or last reviewed those terms.

However, KOL's service probably suits many people -- it's cheap and for some, it's worth receiving a bit of ISP-sponsored spam in return for saving a few bucks every month - for that they are to be commended. I just wish they'd made it a little clearer that the service might be partly ad-funded rather than hiding such nuggets of information away deep inside their T&C page.

Lighten Up
Time for more of the best and the worst flotsam from the wonderful world of the web.

People have long speculated that the NASA moon landings were fake, that they were carefully staged in the Nevada desert or in a specially constructed film set. Fox even did a TV documentary on the matter, offering a range of evidence to support the hoax theory. Well at last there's some definitive proof that they were a fake.

And, just to show that even the crustiest of publishers can occasionally get into the "lighten up" spirit, here's interesting article from the NY Times.

And, while on the subject of The Arts (Hi Helen), take a look at this guy's incredible chalk drawings. This one really had me looking twice!

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