Re: Proposed EU Directive on Electronic Commerce

[Piet Beertema <]

    	First of all there's a wild variety of user mailers,
    	lots of which don't allow users to add X- header lines.
    	Go tell it the developers of those mailers.
    So perhaps it would simply become illegal to send
    ``commercial communications'' using those mailers.
No. You're free to use your preferred application.

    As an analogy: it's already illegal to drive on
    the road with motor vehicles lacking certain
    features - why shouldn't similar logic apply here?
Because the world is a bit larger than the road(s)
you're driving on: you may not be allowed to drive
with a car that lacks head lights, yet you might
well be allowed to drive that car in Northern
Nowhere; at your own risk, of course... ;-)
    
    If `"UCE" in the subject line' were adopted as a standard
Subject lines are there to convey short information
about the contents of a message between humans. The
contents of a Subject line are part of inter-human
communication and therefore subject to the principle
of freedom of speech. Standards therefore can never
impose restrictions. Only laws can, and even then
only to a very limited extent.


	Piet