On
Usenet, the
Usenet Death Penalty (or
UDP) is a final penalty that may be issued against
Internet service providers or single users who produce too much
spam or fail to adhere to Usenet standards. Messages that fall under the jurisdiction of a Usenet Death Penalty will be cancelled. Cancelled messages are deleted from Usenet servers and not allowed to propagate. This causes users on the affected ISP to be unable to post to Usenet, and it puts pressure on the ISP to change their policies. Notable cases include actions taken against
UUNET,
CompuServe, and
Excite@Home.