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The Lumber Cartel was a conspiracy theory, subsequently popularized on USENET, that was alleged to back anti-spammers.

The reasoning was that these companies first destroy forests and make paper out of them, which is in turn used to send bulk mail. Since sending e-mail spam doesn't use paper at all, the essay argued, the lumber companies would want to stop it before it would surpass paper-based bulk mailing, and consequently only those in the pay of the lumber companies would be anti-spam.

Anti-spammers, of course, were quick to point out that this reasoning is far from the truth. There are many reasons why e-mail spam was, and continues to be, a threat to the Internet, and why people continue to fight spam either in their spare time or professionally. In addition, in recent decades only newsprint paper (which is used to print newspapers) is being made out of pulpwood (which is, also, very far from lumber), other fine papers (like the kind used to print glossy advertisements and brochures) are made out of cotton rags. It is thus unlikely that the any lumber or tree-harvesting industry would benefit from any change from junk mailing. Furthermore, lumber companies themselves have little to do with paper companies, and bulk mail constitutes only a small part of total paper use.

Gatherings of anti-spammers on Usenet began to ridicule proponents of this theory, and many participants in news.admin.net-abuse.email chose to dub themselves as members of "the Lumber Cartel" in their signatures, followed immediately by the acronymic disclaimer "TINLC" (There Is No Lumber Cartel), reminiscent of the There Is No Cabal catchphrase.

References

• The Jargon File: "Lumber Cartel"
• Other Ways to Fry Spam at Wired
• Glossary at the Abusive Hosts Blocklist
• Gambling Magazine's 1999 article on spam, mentioning the Lumber Cartel
• Salon.com's 1999 article on anti-spam efforts, mentioning the Lumber Cartel

Web sites dedicated to the Lumber Cartel

• The Lumber Cartel
• The Lumber Cartel, Roosevelt National Forest Chapter (backup copy)
• The Lumber Cartel, local 42 (Canadian branch)
• The Lumber Cartel, operator of a number of DNSBLs.

External Links

• Web site of "The Lumber Cartel"; Archived copy from 2001 available through The Internet Archive.
• Archives of a mailing list from 2005, mentioning the Lumber Cartel
• Archives of a mailing list from 1998, mentioning the Lumber Cartel
• Usenet Archives
• "Possible Anti-Spam Conspiracy Uncovered" (alternate link) - article posted by "Vladimir" to news.admin.net-abuse.email on 1997-11-14
• Archives of a mailing list from 1998, mentioning the Lumber Cartel
• Lumber Cartel in Ursine's Jargon Wiki
• Minutes of an alleged "Meeting of the Lumber Cartel", dated 2000

• E-mail
• Spamming
• Internet culture
• Usenet
• Hoaxes