Slashdot Mirror

So far i'm aware of one american site that appears to be similar in concept to yours. It's called Capitol Advantage.However I do not think they are as pre-occupied about ethical issues as your organization is, as they appear to make it easy for organizations such as "The Direct Marketer's Association" to set-up accounts with their site and offer users a form letter (capwiz is a service of Capitol Advantage) which they can submit "as-is" or choose to amend. If of course elected to do the latter, and ended-up writing an entirely different letter which offered consistent counterpoints to the original DMA arguments.

...except for people in Mass. I believe more people than that signed up in the first month for Oklahoma's do-not-call list, and Oklahoma only has a population of about 3.5 million.

Supposedly a bit more than half the states, representing over %75 of the US population, now have do-not-call lists.

Illinois doesn't have one yet... bleh

Your phone company is already doing it with telemarketers.

Not anymore, at least in some states.

1. Google Cache of State Do Not Call lists which has been relaced by FTC List of State Registries
   
   
2. The DMA's list Useful cache versus the Real soon now revised list
   

require[s] that [telemarketer's] do-not-call request records must be maintained for 10 years after a request is
made.

The regulations required by paragraph (2) may require the
establishment and operation of a single national database to compile
a list of telephone numbers of residential subscribers who object to
receiving telephone solicitations,

"Do Not Call Law"(Alaska's Black Dot Law)
AS 45.50.475 prohibits telephone solicitation of persons identified in a telephone directory as not wishing to receive telephone solicitations. These telephone customers have a "black dot" by their name in the directory. The statute also requires local telephone companies to provide a list of "black dot" customers to telephone solicitors who request one.
For a small fee, your local telephone company will identify your residential listing in your telephone directory with a

• black dot.
• This informs telephone solicitors that you do not want to receive telephone solicitations.

Is "The Direct Marketing Association is threatening to sue to save U.S. consumers from the potential loss of buying opportunities." the funniest sentence ever? "But we wanted to offer them a once in a lifetime chance!!!!!"

We can just give'em a good slashdottin'.

doing the same for the Direct Marketing Association as we have for the self styled 'spam king'
Details here

We don't like direct marketers, but we should have the least amount of venom for the The Direct Marketers Association. They maintain legitimate opt-out lists for email, telephone, and junk mail. Not every "marketer" uese 'em, but those that do use the lists only use them to opt customers out.

If it reduces just some of the harassment, isn't it worth it?

Less junk mail
Fewer telemarketers
Less spam

And BTW: don't be lazy and use the $5 Internet option. Print out the page and pop it in the post for less than 10% of the cost.

The "spam queen" was on NPR this morning (this link works but the audio's not available yet as I write this, and NPR might prefer you go thru npr.org, "audio archives" link).

She seems to be on a public relations campaign for spammers in general. She's not identifying a sponsor -- perhaps the the Direct Marketing Association (more here) -- but I doubt she'd deliberately attract so much attention without some reward. Maybe she's just drumming up more business this way. She made her usual claims that she never sends sex-related spam (i.e. porn or herbal viagra), never emails anyone without their permission, and advises listeners if they receive unwanted commercial email they can simply click the opt-out link included in each message. How very helpful.

Anyway, she reports there are more lawsuits in progress against anti-spam organizations, presumably including voluntary blackhole services. She identifies SpamCop as an unethical services because they allow anonymous reporting, and she argues she has the right to confront her accuser -- the interviewer, naive and non-confrontational, doesn't ask how she thought this right applied outside of a court trial, in a voluntary system (not to mention if "joe-jobs" are protected by the constitution). Actually he missed a lot of questions that would be obvious to the average /.-er.

Spammers are an organized, moneyed interest that is lobbying Congress in the US, and will presumably do the same in other countries where it serves them to do so. Spamming may be getting harder, but counteracting spam is also getting harder. ISP's in financial distress will tend to make business decisions to aid spammers in whatever way is still legal.

Email as we know it could become unworkable, and a new protocol may be necessary. As Aunt Tilly gets hooked by more email fraud, and receives more animated .GIF's of women having sex with farm animals, I think the incentive for most users to abandon traditional email will be there when the technology becomes available.

I stand corrected..now i know...if anyone wants any info about them, here is their home page, and here is what they do...

I stand corrected..now i know...if anyone wants any info about them, here is their home page, and here is what they do...

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin, Wyoming,

See Also, The Feds

I have a distinct feeling that nothing will stop telemarketers from calling cell phones. Currently I only receive a few telemarketing calls a month on my cell phone. The reason for this is not embded in the virtue of telemarketers not wanting to call you! The reason lies in the fact that cell phone numbers are not published in a directory which the DMA could sell to Telemarkers. God help us if this ever were to happen.

From the Direct Marketing Association's website:

here

That should be http://www.the-dma.org/government/donotcalllists.s html for a listing of various state do-not-call laws.

Someone pointed out that there is no Federal "Do not Call Registry". However, Some States do have them. Find your state and Sign up.

At least all the platforms I've used. The DMA believes that all marketers should be able to spam, and so it is! I get spam, even on my PowerBook :)

After about 8 months of consistently asking to be put on do-not-call lists, all telemarking calls to my home number stopped. (I also registered with the Direct Mail Marketing Association's telephone preference service, which may have helped.)

Some states have do not call lists (here's a list). While it can be fun to mess with telemarketers, I prefer to be left alone.

The consumer loses privacy when their information is dispered *without* their consent. This means that based on the number of websites visted the amount of monetary damage goes up. Additionally that then opens their information up to being sold again as those companies may choose to sell the list of people that visit their site. This in turn can be sold again. So unless you have submitted to the Do Not call and Do not mail lists at the DMA you have probably just signed up to get a large amount of additional spam, phone calls, and unwanted mail. I think that this all adds up to at least $1 million per consumer, don't you?

The Librarian of Congress was duped by Yahoo!'s self-serving testimony in the CARP. Yahoo testified in the CARP for one reason, and one reason only -- to lower the rate that would be paid for Internet-only transmissions.

Sure, I'd like an anti-spam law. We'd all like an anti-spam law. We also know it ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

Well, it might. After all, it's already illegal to send unsolicited faxes.

Find some large corporation that hates spam as much as we do. You can't tell me that workers in these corporations aren't getting spam

Like Microsoft for example.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

First, to answer the poster of this story. The TCPA forbids calling at the callee's expense. From this page:

In addition to prohibiting charges to protect residential privacy, the TCPA and our rules prohibit calls that impose costs on the called party (e.g., calls to paging and cellular numbers, facsimile advertisements).

As well you should. I do not believe the TCPA allows them any time whatsoever. If they hang up and immediately call back, that's their one allowed error for the next twelve months. After that, you can charge them $500 per call.

I also learned that these no call lists are only valid for one year at which time they can opt me right back in

That's not what the TCPA says. This page at the Direct Marketing Assocation says that telemarketers must:

# Maintain a "do not call list" and honor any request to not be called again. When such a request is received, the requester may not be called again on behalf of the business for whom the solicitation is made. One error is allowed in a twelve month period. Subsequently, the soliciting companies are subject to penalties. A person's name must be kept on the "do not call list" indefinitely.

I think the people who call just always try to weasel out of the terms and get you to agree. I try to be verify specific:

• I find out what company is calling me ("We're calling on behalf of Sprint..." "Yes, but what company do you work for?") and say they may not call me again. I keep track of that.
• I say "put me on your do-not-call list" rather than "take me off your list".
• If they say "it will take 30 days", I say "it had better not".

Actually, browsing that Junkbusters site, they have a script for you to keep by the telephone. Looks handy.

I write down the name of the company and the name of the person that called(which they must provide), the time and date and what they were selling. Then ask them to never call you again. AT&T called me twice and I reported them to the ftc via an online form. They got a nasty letter from the government and probably a fine.

Soon wisconsin will have a do not call list. Here are do not call lists for many other states.

They try to make it hard for you to sign up. For years, you could only sign up by mail. You couldn't do it online line for "security reasons". Yeaaaa, riiight. Now it cost $5 online, but it's still free by snail mail.

Now I'm also on the Texas list, and I haven't had a call since I signed up.

DMA contacts (such as webmaster@the-dma.org)
Your local congresspeople/parliment officers/etc (such as John_McCain@McCain.senate.gov )
Those fine doubleclick people(such as publicrelations@doubleclick.net)

Don't be greedy, share the love with those who want to help companies share their fine product information with us!

The US postal service actualy makes a profit and does not recive any tax money.

That's not exactly true. See this for example.

The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) today voiced its support for the United States Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors' (BOG) request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to accelerate the payment of "revenue foregone" funds, authorized in the Revenue Foregone Reform Act of 1993, in the federal fiscal year 2003 budget.

The DMA has an interesting Consumer FAQ page, which has some good information (although there is some propaganda mixed in, so read it with a grain of salt.)

For those who are suffering from telemarketers, you can call the National Opt-Out Center at 1-888-5OPT-OUT to be put on a no-calling list, or you can contact the Telephone Preference Service

There's not much information on getting off of email lists, but they do suggest the e-Mail Preference Service (e-MPS).

I used to get a lot of telemarketing calls, but about a year ago I started asking every caller to place me on their no-call list. Since then I've gotten far fewer calls. My spam, on the other hand, is increasing all the time. So far I've been able to keep it under control, but I'm going to keep the e-MPS in mind for the future. (Maybe I'll set up a new email account to test its effectiveness.)

The DMA has an interesting Consumer FAQ page, which has some good information (although there is some propaganda mixed in, so read it with a grain of salt.)

For those who are suffering from telemarketers, you can call the National Opt-Out Center at 1-888-5OPT-OUT to be put on a no-calling list, or you can contact the Telephone Preference Service

There's not much information on getting off of email lists, but they do suggest the e-Mail Preference Service (e-MPS).

I used to get a lot of telemarketing calls, but about a year ago I started asking every caller to place me on their no-call list. Since then I've gotten far fewer calls. My spam, on the other hand, is increasing all the time. So far I've been able to keep it under control, but I'm going to keep the e-MPS in mind for the future. (Maybe I'll set up a new email account to test its effectiveness.)

Go here for more information But also note they charge your $5 to do it online. DONT. You can simply mail in a letter (printable from this form), throw on a stamp, and away you go.

And it does work. My junk mail has decreased dramatically.

Actually, there is. Perhaps the most well know is the Direct Marketing Association. Yeah, they've got money, and yeah, they slather it around in D.C. They're not a spam lobby per se, but that is definitely a area in which they're active.

Yup. The DMA. They want to spam you.

All advertising is aggressive, but passive-aggressive is the least likely to offend.

I quit watching tv, mostly because of the adds. It infuriated me to be paying for a service and then not recieving anything useful. It was really hard for me to enjoy Law and Order with all those commercials interrupting. And I got the feeling the show was being structured around the commercial breaks, and that was too much like pot psychosis for me to handle.

Since the internet came along, I quit subscribing to the daily paper. I get more news than I need online, and it suits me better.

When I'm browsing the web, I disable java and animated gifs and don't allow images to load that come from external servers. So, a lot of add content is effectively blocked. What I do see I can tolerate, because it isn't blinking at me. (Flash notwithstanding. I like it for stuff like BBC and the Requiem for a Dream page. As soon as advertisers go too far in co-opting it, it's hasta la vista Flash.)

What has my dander up lately is product-placements in movies. And the fact that movie makers need to invent words like "toyables" to explain themselves. That's just one more reason to prefer independent and foriegn films to Hollywood films.

Most of the adds that reach me still come through the mail. Since we have listed our names with the DMA, most of the junk mail we receive is stuff we actually asked for, or catalogues from retailers that we actually use. (N.B., the DMA also has services to cut down on junk phone calls and email.)

Targetted adds that accompany subscriptions are acceptable to me in principle, but the service I'm subscribing for better be pretty darned good, and the adds better be right on target. When it comes to media, there's just too information out there to put up with a lot of distractions.

There are reverse phone number directories, as well as address/number directories available online.

Back to the general topic:

We just turn off the ringer of the phone. The answering machine explains that a child is sleeping, so leave a message. Usually we get to the phone while the answering machine is quietly talking to the caller. Seems to work great.

Combined with the phone and mail preferences services offered by the Canadian and the American direct marketer's associations, we get very little junk mail or phone solicitations. In addition we try to always ask to be put on "do not call lists". We have not gotten a phone call solicitation in months.

The Canadian DMA forms can be filled out online for free, the American ones charge a fee online or do it free via snail mail.

You could turn off the ringer of the phone you know - that's what we've done. The answering machine explains that a child is sleeping, so leave a message. Usually we get to the phone while the answering machine is quietly talking to the caller. Seems to work great.

Combined with the phone and mail preferences services offered by the Canadian and the American direct marketer's associations, we get very little junk mail or phone solicitations. In addition we try to always ask to be put on "do not call lists". We have not gotten a phone call solicitation in months.

The Canadian DMA forms can be filled out online for free, the American ones charge a fee online or do it free via snail mail.

When I receive a call that I suspect is from a telemarketer, I pick up the phone, say my greeting, then listen for a pause. If there is a pause, I hang up the phone right away.

Occasionally this catches people making legitimate calls offguard, but they usually call back. Telemarketers, because they're on a round-robin dialer, won't call back right away. Unfortunately this really doesn't solve the problem because (as I understand it) your phone number just gets put back in the dialing queue.

If you really want to get rid of the telemarketers, you need to put your phone number and address on a Direct Marketing Association "blacklist".

• DMA: How to get off a mailing list
• DMA: How to get off a telephone list

I believe there are other resources similar to this.

NOTE: I have not tried either of the above, but I've heard of others that have used it successfully.

See also the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and this Anti-Telemarker / Anti-Spam web page.

When I receive a call that I suspect is from a telemarketer, I pick up the phone, say my greeting, then listen for a pause. If there is a pause, I hang up the phone right away.

Occasionally this catches people making legitimate calls offguard, but they usually call back. Telemarketers, because they're on a round-robin dialer, won't call back right away. Unfortunately this really doesn't solve the problem because (as I understand it) your phone number just gets put back in the dialing queue.

If you really want to get rid of the telemarketers, you need to put your phone number and address on a Direct Marketing Association "blacklist".

• DMA: How to get off a mailing list
• DMA: How to get off a telephone list

I believe there are other resources similar to this.

NOTE: I have not tried either of the above, but I've heard of others that have used it successfully.

See also the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and this Anti-Telemarker / Anti-Spam web page.

Rather than baffle all your legitimate callers, you should first register with the Direct Market Association. The marketers don't want to waste time calling hostile people. Use this to register as a hostile customer. In a bizarre twist, if you register online it is $5. If you register by snail mail it is free. Use snail mail.

I registered quite some time ago and almost all of my sales calls went away. Just the little local people an newspapers were still calling.

You might also check with your state. In Missouri you can sign up here and it becomes illegal for people to call you (with some exceptions for people with powerful lobbies.) I am on this list as well and can't remember the last time I got a sales call.

Rather than baffle all your legitimate callers, you should first register with the Direct Market Association. The marketers don't want to waste time calling hostile people. Use this to register as a hostile customer. In a bizarre twist, if you register online it is $5. If you register by snail mail it is free. Use snail mail.

I registered quite some time ago and almost all of my sales calls went away. Just the little local people an newspapers were still calling.

You might also check with your state. In Missouri you can sign up here and it becomes illegal for people to call you (with some exceptions for people with powerful lobbies.) I am on this list as well and can't remember the last time I got a sales call.

Wait, wait, wait - you're joking, right? Have you ever gone door-to-door? That's hard phucking work, and it's for piss-poor pay. Get real - my e-mail address is for my communication. Unless I opt-in, I don't want you e-mailing me. The poor person who gets me over the phone gets a very simple "I don't do business over the phone" and a hangup. I wish there were an easier way to do that with e-mail. However, there are a few solutions:

SpamCop, which I use regularly.
The DMA, has its E-mail Prefence Service, which you have to renew each year, but seems to work (at least for me).
You can also contact Senator Wyden and tell him exactly what you think of his statement, and, while you're at it, send a message to each of your reps, too.

I think it's obvious to us all that spam is not equivalent to regular advertising - the First Amendment is designed to protect speech that is designed to be unpopular - in a political, religious, social and economic sense. For example, I despise the KKK, but they are protected by the First Amendment, and I respect that. I don't see spam falling under any of those categories, unless you view "Sarah Michelle Gellar Caught Giving Head" as a call for opporessed workers in Third World nations to unite (and, if you do, I think there's a serious problem with one of the two of us, and it ain't me).

For Wyden to say such a stupid remark is beyond me...and, I think, beyond the vast majority of us who understand "the new economy," spam, and the First Amendment (some of us did pay attention in school, Ron). So, I say, "Enough already."

I had a truly evil idea recently that might just work.

We can address the spamming problem by spamming the DMA. They list e-mail addresses on the Internet on this page:

http://www.the-dma.org/aboutdma/contactthedma.shtm l

What we can do is compose an anti-spam message and send it to all the addresses listed on this page. The following guidelines are needed for maximum effectiveness and legality.

• Valid Reply-to or From address.
• Accurate subject line. You may not need to include "ADV:" because you are not selling a product, and this is a bad idea anyway because you don't want the DMA to filter the message.
• Removal instructions, with a statement that the e-mail is sent on a strictly opt-out basis according to current DMA guidelines. (Take THAT!)
• Comply with removal requests.
• Do not mailbomb. Send the messages no more frequently than once every 3 hours. There is no risk of overloading their mail server this way because you will only be sending about a dozen e-mails at a time.
• Include a statement which says the message is not spam because it is a part of a targeted marketing campaign. (Take THAT! Oh, the irony!)
• Personally address all the mail with correct To: and CC: headers. This helps evade many filters.

The point of the exercise is to give the DMA a practical demonstration of the perils of an opt-out marketing campaign.

The DMA will eventually start requesting removal. Comply with all requests. At this time you will need a new message, with new From, Reply-To and Subject headers, and new content.

If enough people do this, we can disrupt the DMA's e-mail system, and give them a practical demonstration on the problems that unfettered spamming will cause.
--

Basically, it put a lid on most slimy marketing practices that misuse personal data. Too many US companies are used to getting away with this, and much of the direct mail industry depends on it.

But it has zero effect on open source or anything like that.

"We don't think e-mail recipients are more sensitive [to unsolicited messages], but there's a very vocal minority who have an objection," said Robert Weintzen, president of the Direct Mail Assn., the industry trade group.

My response? Oh really now. So you don't think that most people dislike spam, huh? Since you're obviously not in that vocal minority, then you wouldn't mind if I changed my .sig to include every dma.org email address I can find, would you?

So here's my new .sig:

--
These guys love spam!
webmaster@the-dma.org kebeling@the-dma.org echo@the-dma.org twalsh@the-dma.org lrc@the-dma.org chapters@the-dma.org customerservice@the-dma.org conference@the-dma.org consumer@the-dma.org councils@the-dma.org mmicali@the-dma.org dmef@the-dma.org Governme@the-dma.org hr@the-dma.org Internat@the-dma.org membership@the-dma.org Presiden@the-dma.org privacy@the-dma.org Sweep@the-dma.org kelli@dma.org.uk dma@dma.org.uk rweintzen@the-dma.org
--

Now when the bottom feeders troll through Usenet and web pages slurping email addresses, they'll pick these up as well. And if there's any karmic justice left in the universe, they haven't had the foresight to add themselves to their own block lists.

-B

"We don't think e-mail recipients are more sensitive [to unsolicited messages], but there's a very vocal minority who have an objection," said Robert Weintzen, president of the Direct Mail Assn., the industry trade group.

My response? Oh really now. So you don't think that most people dislike spam, huh? Since you're obviously not in that vocal minority, then you wouldn't mind if I changed my .sig to include every dma.org email address I can find, would you?

So here's my new .sig:

--
These guys love spam!
webmaster@the-dma.org kebeling@the-dma.org echo@the-dma.org twalsh@the-dma.org lrc@the-dma.org chapters@the-dma.org customerservice@the-dma.org conference@the-dma.org consumer@the-dma.org councils@the-dma.org mmicali@the-dma.org dmef@the-dma.org Governme@the-dma.org hr@the-dma.org Internat@the-dma.org membership@the-dma.org Presiden@the-dma.org privacy@the-dma.org Sweep@the-dma.org kelli@dma.org.uk dma@dma.org.uk rweintzen@the-dma.org
--

Now when the bottom feeders troll through Usenet and web pages slurping email addresses, they'll pick these up as well. And if there's any karmic justice left in the universe, they haven't had the foresight to add themselves to their own block lists.

-B

"We don't think e-mail recipients are more sensitive [to unsolicited messages], but there's a very vocal minority who have an objection," said Robert Weintzen, president of the Direct Mail Assn., the industry trade group.

My response? Oh really now. So you don't think that most people dislike spam, huh? Since you're obviously not in that vocal minority, then you wouldn't mind if I changed my .sig to include every dma.org email address I can find, would you?

So here's my new .sig:

--
These guys love spam!
webmaster@the-dma.org kebeling@the-dma.org echo@the-dma.org twalsh@the-dma.org lrc@the-dma.org chapters@the-dma.org customerservice@the-dma.org conference@the-dma.org consumer@the-dma.org councils@the-dma.org mmicali@the-dma.org dmef@the-dma.org Governme@the-dma.org hr@the-dma.org Internat@the-dma.org membership@the-dma.org Presiden@the-dma.org privacy@the-dma.org Sweep@the-dma.org kelli@dma.org.uk dma@dma.org.uk rweintzen@the-dma.org
--

Now when the bottom feeders troll through Usenet and web pages slurping email addresses, they'll pick these up as well. And if there's any karmic justice left in the universe, they haven't had the foresight to add themselves to their own block lists.

-B

"We don't think e-mail recipients are more sensitive [to unsolicited messages], but there's a very vocal minority who have an objection," said Robert Weintzen, president of the Direct Mail Assn., the industry trade group.

My response? Oh really now. So you don't think that most people dislike spam, huh? Since you're obviously not in that vocal minority, then you wouldn't mind if I changed my .sig to include every dma.org email address I can find, would you?

So here's my new .sig:

--
These guys love spam!
webmaster@the-dma.org kebeling@the-dma.org echo@the-dma.org twalsh@the-dma.org lrc@the-dma.org chapters@the-dma.org customerservice@the-dma.org conference@the-dma.org consumer@the-dma.org councils@the-dma.org mmicali@the-dma.org dmef@the-dma.org Governme@the-dma.org hr@the-dma.org Internat@the-dma.org membership@the-dma.org Presiden@the-dma.org privacy@the-dma.org Sweep@the-dma.org kelli@dma.org.uk dma@dma.org.uk rweintzen@the-dma.org
--

Now when the bottom feeders troll through Usenet and web pages slurping email addresses, they'll pick these up as well. And if there's any karmic justice left in the universe, they haven't had the foresight to add themselves to their own block lists.

-B

"We don't think e-mail recipients are more sensitive [to unsolicited messages], but there's a very vocal minority who have an objection," said Robert Weintzen, president of the Direct Mail Assn., the industry trade group.

My response? Oh really now. So you don't think that most people dislike spam, huh? Since you're obviously not in that vocal minority, then you wouldn't mind if I changed my .sig to include every dma.org email address I can find, would you?

So here's my new .sig:

--
These guys love spam!
webmaster@the-dma.org kebeling@the-dma.org echo@the-dma.org twalsh@the-dma.org lrc@the-dma.org chapters@the-dma.org customerservice@the-dma.org conference@the-dma.org consumer@the-dma.org councils@the-dma.org mmicali@the-dma.org dmef@the-dma.org Governme@the-dma.org hr@the-dma.org Internat@the-dma.org membership@the-dma.org Presiden@the-dma.org privacy@the-dma.org Sweep@the-dma.org kelli@dma.org.uk dma@dma.org.uk rweintzen@the-dma.org
--

Now when the bottom feeders troll through Usenet and web pages slurping email addresses, they'll pick these up as well. And if there's any karmic justice left in the universe, they haven't had the foresight to add themselves to their own block lists.

-B

"We don't think e-mail recipients are more sensitive [to unsolicited messages], but there's a very vocal minority who have an objection," said Robert Weintzen, president of the Direct Mail Assn., the industry trade group.

My response? Oh really now. So you don't think that most people dislike spam, huh? Since you're obviously not in that vocal minority, then you wouldn't mind if I changed my .sig to include every dma.org email address I can find, would you?

So here's my new .sig:

--
These guys love spam!
webmaster@the-dma.org kebeling@the-dma.org echo@the-dma.org twalsh@the-dma.org lrc@the-dma.org chapters@the-dma.org customerservice@the-dma.org conference@the-dma.org consumer@the-dma.org councils@the-dma.org mmicali@the-dma.org dmef@the-dma.org Governme@the-dma.org hr@the-dma.org Internat@the-dma.org membership@the-dma.org Presiden@the-dma.org privacy@the-dma.org Sweep@the-dma.org kelli@dma.org.uk dma@dma.org.uk rweintzen@the-dma.org
--

Now when the bottom feeders troll through Usenet and web pages slurping email addresses, they'll pick these up as well. And if there's any karmic justice left in the universe, they haven't had the foresight to add themselves to their own block lists.

-B

"We don't think e-mail recipients are more sensitive [to unsolicited messages], but there's a very vocal minority who have an objection," said Robert Weintzen, president of the Direct Mail Assn., the industry trade group.

My response? Oh really now. So you don't think that most people dislike spam, huh? Since you're obviously not in that vocal minority, then you wouldn't mind if I changed my .sig to include every dma.org email address I can find, would you?

So here's my new .sig:

--
These guys love spam!
webmaster@the-dma.org kebeling@the-dma.org echo@the-dma.org twalsh@the-dma.org lrc@the-dma.org chapters@the-dma.org customerservice@the-dma.org conference@the-dma.org consumer@the-dma.org councils@the-dma.org mmicali@the-dma.org dmef@the-dma.org Governme@the-dma.org hr@the-dma.org Internat@the-dma.org membership@the-dma.org Presiden@the-dma.org privacy@the-dma.org Sweep@the-dma.org kelli@dma.org.uk dma@dma.org.uk rweintzen@the-dma.org
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Now when the bottom feeders troll through Usenet and web pages slurping email addresses, they'll pick these up as well. And if there's any karmic justice left in the universe, they haven't had the foresight to add themselves to their own block lists.

-B