I'll take 15 seconds just to supplement that. The issue of cookies has come up in discussion, not so much as to whether it's spam but as to whether it's a computer program that's being inserted on someone's personal computer. I think the consensus is that it is not.
If you take a look at standard definitions for what a cookie is, it is simply a text file that is inserted onto a personal computer, at the user's request; they have the ability not to have it there. It doesn't run anything, and if you take a look at the definition of software programs referred to here, they require something more than just being a text file itself.