Ethical Evaluation of Spamming

• Kantian evaluation:
– Treating recipients as means to end (my profit) rather than
respecting them as ends in themselves it is wrong

• Act utilitarian evaluation:
– Unhappy people deleting spam
> Happy people buying product/service
> It is wrong

• Rule utilitarian evaluation:
– If spam increase causes use of email to decrease & usefulness
of email system to fail for everyone it is wrong

• Social contract theory evaluation:
– If my right of free speech violates people’s right not to listen & I
disguise my motive (misleading subject line) to get people
attention it is wrong