I don't know what effect it might have on spam, but the Children's Internet Protective Act (CIPA) mandates that all libraries that receive certain governmental monies block chatrooms (directly named in the Act) and "direct communications" (which as I take it includes email), as well as such things as porn sites.

Blocking "free" email sites such as hotmail will put a crimp in a whole lot of our public Internet users (we don't allow chat anyway). As a side effect it may eventually cut down some on spam -- like perhaps 1%.

I received a spam the other day that promised to increase the size of my "horn." My trumpet is a comfortable size right now; if it were bigger I might not be able to hold it or play it. To me this only reinforces the statement that bigger is not necessarily better!