The mass distribution of unsolicited e-mail messages to large numbers of newsgroups or mailing lists, with little regard for the burden such activity places upon subscribers. Spamming is considered to be one of the worst violations of netiquette, because it forces internet users to waste valuable time scanning and deleting "junk e-mail" messages. This practice is also known as Excessive Cross-Posting (ECP) and Excessive Multi-Posting (EMP). The person sending such messages is known as a "spammer". The term purportedly derives from a song performed on "Monty Python's Flying Circus" where the word was incessantly repeated. Origin is also attributed to the University of Southern California computer lab, which analogized "junk e-mail" to the trademarked Hormel Foods product, consisting of meat that is chopped and compressed into a canned loaf (formally renamed from "Spiced Ham" in 1937). Also ascribed to an advertising editor of the "Dallas Times Herald", who suggested "throwing a can of Spam into an electric fan just to see if it will stick to any unwary passersby"; which notion is similar to "run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes". See flame-bait, flame, adware, pop-up, e-mail.