Re: Proposed EU Directive on Electronic Commerce

[Ragnar Lonn <]

On Fri, 15 Jan 1999, Piet Beertema wrote:

>     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.
> 

That's also a pretty weird statement, IMHO. Adding a bunch of
characters to the Subject: line does in no way violate the
user's right to freedom of speech as long as you don't *replace*
something the user has written. It's just a way to mark a 
message. Like the post office stamping envelopes.

  /Ragnar