Internet etiquette

Fellonies that could even have financial or jurisdictic consequences:

• Putting up advertisements in USENET newsgroups that weren't specificially created for this purpose (and they seldomly are, so, when in doubt, presume advertisements are unwanted on USENET newsgroups). Possible consequences if you do it anyway:
  • You receive an angry E-mail from thousands of people (which will cause your mailbox to overflow, and which will cost you extra money for the excess space/bandwidth you used); this is commonly known as an E-mail bomb.
  • You are sued in court (this could be in any country in the world) by organisations/persons that are responsible for certain newsgroups.
  • It will become impossible for you to post further articles in some newsgroups.

• Spreading around chainletters of any kind. It does not matter if it is about earning money, recipes, postcards, a world record, an ill boy, all these cases are considered chainletters and are illegal. It does not matter if these letters are distributed by E-mail or through USENET newsgroups, both are not allowed.

  Should you receive a chainletter by E-mail, you are urged not to respond to it, but instead send a warning to the postmaster of the sender and possibly a carbon copy to postmaster@cuci.nl.