Cyber Glossary
Cyberlaw dictionary is an alphabetical reference guide to technical and legal terms related to the Internet. The site you are now browsing contains over 500 definitions of words drawn from Standard Internet English including technical terms and their meanings. Our aim is to explain basic technical jargon of cyberspace to those who are not familiar with its jargon. We've given preference to terms that are widely used, like modem or bandwidth, and to those that describe new concepts specific to the Internet experience such as phishing or sexting.
Spam
unsolicited commercial offers sent via email or posted to an online public forum such as a news group or message board. Spam is electronic junkmail sent usually to a large mailing list. It is widely considered a nuisance because spam consumes both time and considerable bandwidth. However, some feel that the campaign against commercial mass emailing is overblown considering the ease with which a recipient can dispose of the message (a mouse click is all it takes). Spam can become particularly annoying when it provides a link to a pornographic Website that children can access. It is unclear where the term originated, though it is thought to have come from either Monty Python’s ditty that repeats the word spam, spam, spam... thus, the reference to duplicated messages, or from the processed meat product produced by Hormel that some consider unpalatable.
