Meetings

Junk E-Mail

The John Marshall Law School

Tuesday July 22nd at 7:00pm
College of Dupage Room SRC-1048

Abstract

Unsolicited bulk e-mail -- also known as "junk e-mail" or "spam" -- is a rapidly growing problem on the Internet. It consumes increasing amounts of bandwidth and imposes a great burden on recipients and network service providers in wasted time and system resources. Junk e-mail is potentially a greater problem than junk mail and telemarketing mainly because it costs so little to send large numbers of e-mail messages.

Congress and several state legislatures are currently considering laws that would ban or regulate unsolicited e-mail. While some of these proposals would at least partially address the problem, others would likely make it much worse by destigmatizing unsolicited bulk e-mail and dramatically increasing its use.

Speaker Bio

David E. Sorkin is a professor at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. He is the associate director of John Marshall's Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law, and is the faculty editor of the John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law. He teaches courses in cyberspace law, information law and policy, lawyering skills, and consumer protection.

In June 1997 he participated in the Federal Trade Commission's workshop on consumer information privacy in Washington, DC. He has addressed Internet-related issues on several local and national radio and television programs, and has been quoted by ComputerWorld, USA Today, and many other publications. His most recent article concerns the status of unsolicited e-mail under the federal "junk fax" law; it will appear later this year in the Buffalo Law Review.

Getting to the meeting

The next meeting of UniForum Chicago will be from 7:00 pm to 9:00 PM on Tuesday, July 22, 1997 at the College of DuPage. The address of the meeting facility is:

        College of DuPage
        Building SRC, Rm 1048
        22nd and Lambert
        Glen Ellyn, IL 60137-6599

Take 355 to Butterfield Rd (Rt 56). Butterfield West to Lambert Rd. Lambert Rd North to first right after College Road. Park in lots 7 or 8 and walk to SRC building. Room 1048 is on the first floor and is entered through the cafeteria.

All UniForum Chicago general meetings are open to the public free of charge.

Contact Michael Potter at (630) 960-0133 x615 for additional information.

For more information about UniForum Chicago contact mep@xnet.com.