Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft and the SPAM Game
The Seattle Times reported a while ago that Microsoft is pushing for Washington State Senate Bill 5734 which will overturn most of Washington State's laws that specify monetary penalties for companies who send out spam. This will completely exempt ISPs from current Washington spam laws, which Microsoft just happens to be. It seems that they are jumping the gun a bit. They are having a company named Digital Impact (save that address for you spam filters) send the email for them. Thankfully I live in Seattle so maybe I can collect an easy $500 before Microsoft guts the current law.
Known for its poor software? By whom, the Slashdot community, which is hardly representative of this thing called the real world? Just because some Slashdot geeks don't like Microsoft doesn't mean their software is poor, sorry. In fact, a lot of their software is quite useful -- just because people think everything should be free doesn't make the software bad.
Monopolistic practices happen, all the time, the companies gets reined in by the gov't. But you don't see the rhetoric when people talk about cable companies, phone companies, power companies, etc., only Microsoft. Curious...
You are jumping to conclusions about my post. I'm not pretentious. But think about why you posted your comment in the first place. It bore no insight; it conveyed no useful information. All you did was jump on the Slashdot bandwagon and yell "Microsoft sucks! Look at me I'm one of you!"
evil adrian
This article confuses me. Microsoft is sending out spam, though this is not legal in washington at the moment? Is that the point?
Is Microsoft spam normal? I've never recieved any, despite the fact my e-mail address is on webpages all over the place. Of course, i don't own any MS products, and i've never registered any. Maybe tha'ts how they build their spam target lists.
Microsoft has enough methods for getting their products time in front of your eyes, through Windows Media Player, and virtually every other bundled app within windows, without deluging you with junkmail, but the fact remains that generation of email marketing materials is far cheaper than any other marketing materials except perhaps newspaper ads. Consumer eye-share is a valuable thing, and ther is no better medium than through that through which consumers expect to recieve valuable and meaningful correspondence thus are more likely to focus their attention on as they review what they've recieved. The fact of the matter is, SPAM works. This is our fault as consumers. I've never bought anything based on SPAM I've recieved and I doubt anyone who frequents /. has either, but obviously many consumers have. Say what you will about Microsoft, but the company is a collection of some of the shrewdest business people out there who'll be damned to hell before they abandon a potential marketing channel. It's just good business.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
it's the age-old practice of manufacturing a problem while providing the means to get around the problem. i.e., m$ sends out spam and then sells you their software to prevent spam.
And the prequel
Monopolies, no matter who has them, are bad. It doesn't matter who the company is or what they control.
(scroll down a bit in the discussions for the "rhetoric" and if I really cared, I'd look up examples for cable companies and power companies too, but I don't
When using Hotmail, the Block button is greyed out when you are reading mail from any MS affiliate...And even when I get my hotmail through outlook, some of the MS stuff just slides by the filters I have set up... Oh the joys of MS....
Well, there is a monthly "features" mail that i get on my hotmail account from "staff@hotmail.com" that
cannot be blocked
cannot be marked as "junk mail"
cannot be forwarded ( say to "abuse" at hotmail.com)
does not specify how i can stop recieving it
You forgot:
is the single email message most frequently imitated/forged by hotmail spammers
I've had m0.net firewalled off from my mail server for months (maybe years) now due to their incessant spewage of spam.
= UTF-8& oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search
/dev/null
just look here
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=m0.net&ie
The fact that M$ would even consider such a slimey bag of spammers is typical of their unethical monopolistic behavior. Maybe its high time we added all of M$ ip blocks to the various rbl's and see how Uncle Billy feels when his corporate emails start hitting
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
Hey, more power to the idea of a new system requiring authentication for sending mail. I am all for that. But how do you stop throw away accounts? People have a hard enough time with waiting periods for guns. Do you propose a waiting period for out-going mail?
:)
"Yes, sir, here is your brand new shiny internet account. However, you can't send mail or post to usenet until the 30 day waiting period is up and you've passed our background checks."
Yeah, that'll fly. Hmmm? Maybe a new slashdot poll? How long would slashdotters be willing to wait before being allowed to send mail on a new net account as a measure to fight spam? In all seriousness, I'd actually like to know the answer to that one... I'd guess it's pretty low, but I might be wrong. I've been wrong before. On occasion.
WWJD?
JWRTFM!
I bought one of those MSN Companion puters from Tiger direct a year ago. I signed up for the MSN service (free 6mo) to play with the puter before I nuked the OS. I signed up as "ipaqheat@msn.com". This is not an address that was published, as I have never used it. Within a week of signing up I had a SPAM in the mailbox. The way I see it, Microsoft had to sell my information to a spammer for that to happen. I hold them responsible for it. I've since canceled the account.
Sounds like living in WA can pay for itself. One $4000 suit/week can pay pretty good wages. Sounds like the ultimate work-at-home business.
So do you spread your e-mail address across Usenet?
Can you you sue the same people again if you open up a new e-mail address and they start sending it there too?
Can you recommend a good real estate agent?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."