I think that is actually very relevant. For example, if I scrape email in an automated manner and send messages to those emails for purpose of profit (say, adv

I think that is actually very relevant. For example, if I scrape email in an automated manner and send messages to those emails for purpose of profit (say, advertising my business), then I am subject to very different laws regarding spam than if I manually gathered the emails. I'm sure, given your legal prowess, you could expand a very interesting argument here. Ok, your turn ;)