Spam
Pre-Existing Business Relationships Don’t Matter
Image by Getty Images via Daylife I was reading the Terms of Service for an ESP today. Under the section entitled “Affirmative Consent” we read: Clients may only use [the ESP] to send email to individuals who have either provided affirmative consent through an “opt-in” process that they want to receive the type of email [...]
A Brief History of Spam
Today, while having a look around my RSS feeds, I came across a blurb at FastCompany.com for its “Infographic of the Day” feature. Today’s feature is “The Spam Industry.” You can click the image for a closer look. In the graphic you can see the back and forth battle between those purveyors of All That [...]
When is a press release an advertisement?
Image via Wikipedia One of the first things I learned when I became a legal assistant is that there are rarely any pat answers. A blanket assertion is almost always wrong. (Did you see the attorney-like weasel wording there?) There has been an interesting discussion on Twitter today regarding a February Techcrunch post (and wow [...]
Handling Unsubscribe Requests
Image via Wikipedia When someone wants off of your list what do you do? Obviously, the answer to that question is “remove them.” Just as important of a consideration is “How do you go about doing that?” Commercial email is an animal all to itself. If you have a falling out with your best friend, [...]
Marketers are like teenagers
Image via Wikipedia Have you ever noticed how teenagers want to “be my own person!” and not “follow the crowd” even as they rush to do so? For everything ranging from their hairstyles and clothes to their cars and leisure activities, teenagers find stress in fitting in. Marketers are a lot like that too. Everyone [...]
How is this a win for Comcast?
Image via Wikipedia Well, I have gotten in a question about last night’s post on the e360 v Comcast settlement. The question comes anonymously, and asks me to explain remarks found in this post on usenet. That post quotes the final paragraph and says: I don’t understand that point of view. As far as I [...]
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Image via Wikipedia One of the hardest things for marketers who claim to understand what they are doing is actually act like it. For people who supposedly understand that there is a flood of things to look at and listen to, they sometimes act as though theirs is the only message out there to be [...]
Top 10 Posts of 2009
So, yesterday I put out a list of the bottom 10 posts of 2009. I promised then that I’d put out a list of the top 10 posts today, and here they are (in reverse order — #1 is really #10). IP relisted despite no more mail being sent. It seems like I blogged about [...]
Barry Speaks: We won’t shut-up and eat your spam
Today we have a guest post from the ever popular Barry. Barry is overworked and underpaid, and wants to get the word out: I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter about how ESPs think the ISPs should just shut up and eat their spam. That if the ISPs understood how hard they’re working, and what [...]
Use Private Domain Registration and Go to Jail?
Image via Wikipedia As reported on Spamsuite, the 9th Circuit opinion in USA v. Kilbride, (9th Cir., 2009) has been released. This is primarily an obscenity case against the defendants for sending pornographic spam email. But, it also includes a challenge to 18 U.S.C. § 1037 on vagueness grounds. 18 U.S.C. § 1037 is the [...]
