Involuntary mailing lists
I received an email today from a mailing list to which I did not subscribe. It was a Christian evangelistic email that started as follows:

From: goodword@niconet.za.net
Subject: [Goodword] Good day

Sally jumped up as soon as she saw the surgeon come out of the operating room.
She said: "How is my little boy? Is he going to be all right? When can I see
him?"

The surgeon said, "I'm sorry. We did all we could, but your boy didn't make it."

Sally said, "Why do little children get cancer? Doesn't God care any more? Where
were you, God, when my son needed you?"

The surgeon asked, "Would you like some time alone with your son? One of the
nurses will be out in a few minutes, before he's transported to the university."

I did a little poking around and then composed the following reply (from my gmail address, since I don't want to expose my private email to everyone on the list):

To: goodword@niconet.za.net, goodword-owner@niconet.za.net,
	coertzen@mtnloaded.co.za
Subject: Unethical mailing list owners

Jeremy jumped up as soon as he saw the mail arrive in his inbox.  He
said: "What is this message?  Is it something interesting?  Is it a
message from a friend?"

The mail client said, "I'm sorry.  I deliver what I get, and this is a
religious spam email."

Jeremy said, "Why do people get signed up to mailing lists without
their consent? Doesn't anyone have any ethical standards anymore?
Where are you, spam fliter, when I needed you most?"

The mail client asked, "Would you like some time to frame a suitable
reply?  One of the STMP servers will be waiting whenever you have
overcome your instinctive rage and write something worthy of actually
being read."

--==ooOOoo==--

Who signed me up to this mailing list?  Why did I not get a
confirmation email that would allow me to refuse?  Why can I not
easily unsubscribe from the list's web interface?

This list (and another which apparently hasn't seen any traffic) seem
to be the only things living on the niconet.za.net domain.  The
relevant bits of the whois record (public information, I wouldn't
stoop to revealing anything private in an email of this nature) is as
follows:

Domain Name            : niconet.za.net
Registered for         : Nico Coertzen
                         54 Karas Avenue
                         Vaalpark
                         1947
                         South Africa
Administrative Contact : Nico Coertzen <coertzen@mtnloaded.co.za>
                         Nico Coertzen
                         54 Karas Avenue
                         Vaalpark
                         Free State
                         1947
                         South Africa
                         +27784928570

Mr Coertzen:  Is this your list?  If not, can you soundly thump
whoever runs it?  I am highly unimpressed with this situation and
intend to take matters further if it is not resolved speedily.

Please note that I have sent this from a secondary address, as I do
not wish the address that has been subscribed to the list to be
public.

Thank you,
Jeremy

I now await the response.