Spam, the Law, and e-mail Marketers

So I just read an article from ClickZ called "Spam, the Law, and e-mail Marketers" by Derek Harding, and it was thought provoking. Something I had never considered, but is a huge problem, is spam & its interference with the viability of e-mail. Derek discussed how spam is increasing at ridiculously exponential rates, and that eventually servers may be receiving millions of spam e-mails per week..that's right, MILLIONS! And what do people immediately want to do, but block these annoying messages? But there lies the problem, because in filtering spam, marketers are concerned that their advertisements and promotions will not get through to consumers. These marketers argue that this is, in fact, illegal. But Derek brings up another good point in that even if these messages from marketers DO get through, won't they just be lost in a crowd? Most likely. I know personally, I get SO much spam and it is terribly frustrating - I don't give any of those e-mails a chance..it's just delete, delete, delete. In my opinion, Derek is right & we have to ensure that we work toward saving e-mail...And maybe marketers should just find another method of reaching their target audience.