The Lumber Cartel was a facetious
conspiracy theory popularized on
USENET
Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...
that claimed
anti-spam
Various anti-spam techniques are used to prevent email spam (unsolicited bulk email).
No technique is a complete solution to the spam problem, and each has trade-offs between incorrectly rejecting legitimate email (false positives) as opposed to ...
mers were secretly paid agents of lumber companies.
In November 1997, a participant on
news.admin.net-abuse.email posted an essay to the newsgroup. The essay described a
conspiracy theory:
The reasoning provided in the essay was that certain companies first destroy forests and make
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distrib ...
out of them, which is in turn used to send
bulk mail
Bulk mail broadly refers to mail that is mailed and processed in bulk at reduced rates. The term is sometimes used as a synonym for advertising mail.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) defines bulk mail broadly as "quantities of mail prepar ...
. Since sending
e-mail spam
Email spam, also referred to as junk email, spam mail, or simply spam, is unsolicited messages sent in bulk by email (spamming).
The name comes from a Monty Python sketch in which the name of the canned pork product Spam is ubiquitous, unavoida ...
does not 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.
The rationale was based in
disclaimer
A disclaimer is generally any statement intended to specify or delimit the scope of rights and obligations that may be exercised and enforced by parties in a legally recognized relationship. In contrast to other terms for legally operative langua ...
s in certain spam messages that they were using electronic means in order to save paper. The joke eventually led to a club and numerous
parody
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
websites, most of which have long since disappeared.
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
signature
A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. The writer of a ...
s, followed immediately by the acronymic disclaimer "TinLC" (There is no Lumber Cartel), reminiscent of the
There Is No Cabal
''There Is No Cabal'' (abbreviated TINC) is a catchphrase and running joke found on Usenet. The journalist Wendy M. Grossman writes that its appearance on the ''alt.usenet.cabal'' FAQ reflects conspiracy accusations as old as the Internet itsel ...
catchphrase.
People were able to register with a website about the Lumber Cartel and were given a sequential membership number. That was added to email sig files in
news.admin.net-abuse.email and used on personal websites. There was no verification or requirement to receive the membership number.
See also
*
Culture jamming
Culture jamming (sometimes also guerrilla communication) is a form of protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It att ...
References
External links
How the Lumber Cartel startedThe Canadian Branch of the Lumber Cartel (local 42)The Netherlands Lumber CartelThe United Kingdom Lumber Cartel in Craggy Island{dead link, date=December 2017 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
The ZhongGuo (China) Lumber Cartel, local 88* The
Jargon File:
Lumber CartelGlossary at the Abusive Hosts Blocklistat
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...
Gambling Magazine's 1999 article on spam, mentioning the Lumber CartelThe Lumber Cartel's DNS-based blackhole listThe Lumber Cartel's "Offishul" page.
Email
Spamming
Usenet
Internet hoaxes
Conspiracy theories
Timber industry