These are just box-clogging annoyances. Overlooked in all this is the fact that macros can be written to plant a trojan horse or erase the hard disk or do just about anything you want. When I first heard about Melissa and how its text message contained a bunch of pornographic Web addresses, I reckoned that it was nothing more than a new creative way to promote porn sites. I still wonder if this was the real reason for this invention, and exactly why someone doesn't bust the porn site managers along with the coder mystifies me. It's amusing how people moan about spam from porn sites and multilevel marketeers while no action is ever taken against the specific sites.
People vent their anger at the mailing list folks.
But I digress. I think simple legislation is the answer here. This is not a market, it's a nuisance. I expect the government to do something if a guy in a trench coat is flashing every dog, cat, old lady, and kid in my town while walking up and down the street, I expect something to be done about incessant lewd come-ons in my mailbox. And I expect the government to do something about the e-mail bombs, spam, and macro pranks in my mailbox.