Microsoft Fights to Weaken Washington Anti-Spam Law

An anonymous reader writes "According to the Seattle Times, Microsoft (probably their MSN arm) is pushing for a change in at least Washington's anti-spam law. Some analysts claim that the changes contain holes that will allow Microsoft to be exempt from the law." Odd that Microsoft is simultaneously trying to stop spam sent to Hotmail users, and to make sure that it can send unsolicited commercial email without penalties.

Comments

Odd?

[Anonymous Coward]

Odd that Microsoft is simultaneously trying to stop spam sent to Hotmail users, and to make sure that it can send unsolicited commercial email without penalties.

No, it's not. Laws that apply to everyone but you are very handy.

Re:Odd?

[WindBourne]

In fact, MS is one of the bigger sellers of your address. And many of them are not just on their sites. They want to look like the good guys by appearing to crack down, but at the same time, they need to make a buck.
Oh, BTW, MS is not the only one. Yahoo is another huge seller of addresses. In fact, they may be bigger, but I am not sure. I wish congress would have done more to address the texas-style accounting and had all corps show more of where their income comes from.

Re:Odd?

[Black Copter Control]

Odd that Microsoft is simultaneously trying to stop spam sent to Hotmail users, and to make sure that it can send unsolicited commercial email without penalties.

I had to deal with a company that gave up trying to block spammers from hacking into their (windows) servers for spam-routers. All I could do was watch as, over a period of months, just about everybody seemed to block emails from their IP address. Hotmail was one of the few exceptions -- certainly it was the only name I recognized.

I never could figure out why HotMail never banned them.

odd?

[Cyberllama]

Odd that Microsoft is simultaneously trying to stop spam sent to Hotmail users, and to make sure that it can send unsolicited commercial email without penalties.

That's not odd at all. That's just how microsoft works. They want to protect their monopoly, and perhaps extend it to new products (Microsoft Brand Penis enlargers anyone?).

Microsoft has never played by the rules before, I don't know why anyone would think they'd start doing it now. . .

Odd? Ha!

[grub]

Odd that Microsoft is simultaneously trying to stop spam sent to Hotmail users, and to make sure that it can send unsolicited commercial email without penalties.

Odd? Hardly. Microsoft feels it is above the standard of most Good Corporate Citizens because they have a monopoly. Remember when MS' updater said no info would be sent back to MS? Well just have a look at what XP is sending back to MS for an example of their power-crazed mindset.

Spam is ineffective.

[gpinzone]

Why the heck are so many groups trying so hard to preserve a form of advertising that no one pays attention to?

I swear, if the Internet didn't boom so quickly, banner ads might still have been looked upon as a viable outlet for advertising. I mean really, what makes banner ads so much worse than radio ads? I ignore radio and TV ads just as easily by changing the channel. The only advertising worth a damn was the small posters on the railroad. I'll be damnned if each and every one of those ads weren't burned into my memory from staring at them during my hour commute each way, 5 days a week.

Re:I'd rather have

[packeteer]

The problem for MS is that they are more than "pesky". On the one hand they waste huge amounts of bandwidth on spam with hotmail. They recieve a huge number of spam becuase of their huge number of users. On the other hand they make money selling addresses and spamming on their own.

To them it's very simple. If they get their way they can make more money while cutting costs. Its what any business should do in America right? Personally i take this as evidence that our system is flawed. I am not going to bitch and complain about our system and exploitation but i do believe we should fight companies that try this, keep them in check.