Computerworld has an article about Gary Thuerk, the Digital Equipment salesman who is credited with sending the world's first piece of unsolicited commercial email, back in 1978. Thuerk says in the article: “"I think of myself as the father of e-marketing. There's a difference. ... E-spam is ... unwanted by almost all of those who receive it,” Whereas, according to Thuerk, e-marketing addresses a targeted list of recipients who “have a known or qualified interest in your product, service or the information you are sending.”.

In other words, “spam is that which we do not send”. In the intervening years, we've grown wearily familiar not just with spam but also with claims that ‘ours isn't spam because ...’. Apparently Thuerk pioneered not just spam, but spammer denial as well.