Everything today is spin. Certainly not just the blogosphere, but increasingly in the blogosphere.

From the media, we have come to expect it. I turned on CNBC today to hear the anchor say: "Good morning, it's 8 AM in New York; 1 PM at London Heathrow".

These people at CNBC can't even say a simple "Hello" without trying to spin you! Like the Sprint TV commercial, these people need "Spin Artist" stamped on their forehead. Permanently tatooed.

I am a little ticked that the same sophisticated marketing has gotten into the blogosphere.

Recently I received an e-mail from a well-known Wall Street self-promoter who now has a blog. He started to survey some better known financial bloggers as to their weekly bullish or bearish opinion " a one-second sound bite if you will.

That's fine " harmless really " except he copyrighted it, which pissed me. And then he sent me an e-mail to thank me for participating in his survey, which I didn't, and which offended me because on first contact I told him I had no interest because I could see where he was taking this self-marketing scheme.

I was pissed that somebody would think my public opinions are for sale, and that he owns them.

Worse, the e-mail he sent (still sends) lists the e-mail addresses of all the trading bloggers he has contacted, representing that they are participants " me included, even though I objected and he replied that basically I had a bad attitude and hence he would remove my name. As if this was my fault!

It's not that he didn't have the courtesy of blind copying; the point is that he never intended to.

His clearly-marked list is a slick way of marketing his apparent acceptance to a group of people that includes me. I resent my name being associated. Moreover, there are people on that list that I'd never want have a thing to do with (and they perhaps with me) " including Dr. John Rutledge, as well as the blogger himself.

There are things I value highly " like my reputation, the people I associate with, and blogging freely to contribute what I can to society. I believe, on the other hand, that if you have private clients, that's a private matter. What's copyrighted should be made available for money and password protected to private users.

Anything a blogger puts into the public domain ought to be public and free, and I resent the word "copyright" and the slick marketing of some people who are trying hard to exploit the blogosphere.

I guess anything good (and free) will sooner or later be corrupted by money-grubbing carpetbaggers.

Anyway, this is my opinion. I own it. But, for what it's worth, you can have it.