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That's the way I've always looked at it, but the Can-Spam Act perversely legitimizes what once would have been regarded as spam, and that to many, still is. Al
by lutusp 13y ago
That's the way I've always looked at it, but the Can-Spam Act perversely legitimizes what once would have been regarded as spam, and that to many, still is.
Also, when people opt-out, what's to stop one business from sharing the addresses of opt-outs with another business, who then can drink from the same well? This is a glaring flaw in Can-Spam commented on by many, and it's why a number of influential organizations argued that it shouldn't have been made into law in the first place:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/113137/article.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/113137/article.html
Quote: "The Senate unanimously approved the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act last week. It requires e-mail users to opt out of unwanted commercial e-mail, instead of requiring e-mail senders to get permission before sending. That approach is backwards, say vendors of antispam technologies and at least one consumer advocacy group."
- PeterisP 13y agoThis is a problem with a social/technical solution. As you say, according to Can-Spam act it's legal to send spam to people who haven't opted out. On the other hand, it is also legal and ethical to make a list of which senders are sending spam to people who haven't opted in, and try to filter out all messages from such spammers.
- lutusp 13y ago> On the other hand, it is also legal and ethical to make a list of which senders are sending spam to people who haven't opted in, and try to filter out all messages from such spammers. Yes, that's true, and IMHO admirable. The difference is that people who send spam are organized and have substantial resources. Organizations like Spamhaus (which do exactly what you suggest) are under constant threat of extinction by well-heeled adversaries. http://www.spamhaus.org/news/article/698/ http://www.spamhaus.org/news/article/698/ Quote: "The Spamhaus Project offers congratulations and its sincere thanks to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM), the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) of the Dutch Police Services Agency (KLPD), the Spanish National Police (Catalonia branch in collaboration with the Central UDEF), and any and all other entities involved in the recent arrest announced in regard to the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Spamhaus in March 2013." The bottom line is that it's an uphill battle to fight organizations who have both resources and ill-advised laws on their side.