About us
Who we are?
NoNoNoYes came about in the Spring of 2020, and was founded by Bas Nap, a native of The Netherlands. Bas has been a resident of the United States for the last 25 years. He hods strong ideas about personal liberties and freedoms, as well as the right to privacy.
The goal of this project is to help hand back "power to people" in deciding what kind of postal mail people prefer to receive. This idea is not new and certainly not original. In The Netherlands, and most other European countries, it's very common to exercise one's right over one's own postal mailbox. And people have been able to do so for decades!
However, somehow this is not the case in the US!
The United States is a bit of a different beast so to speak. The founding principles of the Constitution, including the amendments, and specifically the 1st amendment's 'Freedom of Speech' section color daily live in some shape or fashion for most Americans.
"Freedom of Speech gives advertisers the right to mail you their advertisements"
'Freedom of Speech' versus 'Right to Privacy'
The 1st Amendment, the 'Right to Free Speech', holds that no Government (local, state or Federal) can enact laws that abridge speech. (here):
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
However, what this actually- and precisely means, is being shaped by sometimes glacially slow moving legislation, and litigation to this very day.
Largely this right covers the right to 'say whatever you want', and that no law shall be permitted to abridge you of that right. The right to Free Speech, however, does come with a right that a recipient has to agree, or decide to even listen to you. In fact, the right to Free Speech is in fact sometimes abridged, specifically when it involves a 'captive audience', meaning an audience who has no option but to listen.
Juxtaposed against the 'Freedom of Speech' is the 'Right to Privacy' as interpreted via the Fourth Amendment.
The Right to Privacy gives us the very basic right to be free from sights, sounds, and tangible matter we do not want.
There are certain limitations on free speech as in 'when and where' you can exercise your right to free speech. The right to free speech is mostly abridged when the 'audience' is 'captive', meaning a listener is forced to listen.
"Right to Privacy gives an addressee the right to refuse material he did not want nor seek"
Our driver and motivation
While numerous equivalent laws are on the books for other ways of solicitation, (e.g solicitation via cold calling or texting), no such law currently exists for the advertising mail industry.
I am calling for the creation of a 'Do-not-Mail registry' to be established in the United States.
The sole aim is to make the public aware of-, and to encourage the exercise of the right to privacy which empowers fellow Americans to be left alone, to not be bothered, and to exert control over their own postal mailbox.
If you are interested in the legal foundations, please read up about it here.
If you are interested in our vision to a more equitable and fair solution benefiting all, please read the Our Vision section.
Bas & the NoNoNoYes team.