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UCE Fallout - Newsletter/Mailing List Confirmations are SPAM?

Posted by Cliff on from the even-innocent-communication-is-now-suspect dept.

battlemage asks: "According to this Article [heise.de; Google translation - pretty unreadable], a german court decided on 9/19/02 that the common confirmation E-Mails sent to new subscribers of newsletters could be considered unsolicited e-mail, aka SPAM, if they are sent to somebody who did not actually subscribe. According to German laws, this could actually mean fines for the site running the newsletter. They said it was the site owners obligation to prove that somebody actually requested such e-mail. The question is, how would that be possible without e-mail and without cost-intensive Passport/ID/CreditCard-Checks? I do work on a website in my free-time, and we would probably like to offer newsletters in the future, but I'm now unsure how we could do that." Mailing list and newsletter admins in other countries might do well to keep an eye on this in case such laws migrate to their area.

2 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. Just an idea... by Xner · · Score: 3, Insightful
    My knowledge of the german language is sketchy, my knowledge of german law is absolutely non-existent. I would like though to try and propose a possible work-around.

    What about going full-disclosure about it?
    What about providing all the details of the request in the confirmation email, including timestamp, IP adress, browser ID, referrer, etc?

    In that way, the recipient can see who was responsible for signing up and can take out their issues on them.

    Of course, the operator of the mailing list should be ready and willing to provide the same information under oath to a court of law.

    --
    Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
  2. Interesting But a quick fix is there by pauldy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    if the last 3 digits of the email are .de the redirect the user to a page that says something to the effect.

    Due to the stringent confusing laws in Germany this site cannot afford the potential of being held liable for spam in Germany therefore you must use another e-mail account like those you can get for free at yahoo.com or yada yada.

    Seems you would at least be doing your part to make sure no one is using your site to flood someone elses mailbox.