Slashdot Mirror
First Test of Utah Anti-Spam Law Dismissed
fwoomer writes "Apparently, Utah feels that once you've 'opted-in' you can't opt back out as fast as you've opted in. From the story: 'Gillman requested removal on May 14, 2002, from the e-mailing lists his visit to Audio Galaxy a month earlier had linked him to. Two days later, he received a Sprint ad, and on May 28 he filed suit. The court found his attempt to have himself removed from the lists was insufficient to void the pre-existing business relationship.' If he was receiving spam in May after 'opting in' in April, I don't see how it could be unreasonable to expect to be removed from lists as fast as he was added. Unfortunately there's not much detail in this story. A good read, nonetheless." I don't see how signing up with Audiogalaxy establishes a business relationship with Sprint, but, whatever. Presumably some of the other lawsuits filed are against people that have no possible claim to the receiver opting-in.
Pretty soon everyone in Utah is going to be getting spammed with extra wives.
This was clearly outlined in paragraph 7 of page 83 of the AudioGalaxy Terms of Service. It's right below the paragraph outlining the rights to your lungs in case of death by bear mauling. I don't know you could miss it, it was in huge 1pt print.
And what does a "good post" have?
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
... because in no other era could my penis have had this much correspondence dedicated to its well-being. We're living in a Golden Age, people, but none of you appreciate it...
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
It's a good thing all the spammers are here in the U.S. where they can be stopped by a U.S. law like this.
Judging from how much spam I got within a day of posting on slashdot with my special slashdot email address, I'll bet Mister Drecksel will get plenty of spam at his pcd@pwlaw.com address very soon.
Terrycloth Lobster
the women are taught to satisfy the men any way they want
Maybe you should join then. That may be the only way that your fat, pasty white ass can get any action.
But doesn't that "SCREAM" that selling "email-based permission" lists illegal?
After all, if business A sells your email address for 2.95, and business B sells it to C for 5.95 and business C does something illegal with it, how would business A sue business C for illegal use? It can't, and that places the burden on the customer. But since you can't limit WHO they sell your "permission to" (obstruction of commerce) that means you're writing them a blank check, with little to zero chance of ever having your rights respected. (the amount of spam makes prosecution for a single spam unlikely in the extreme) YET each spam is an individual crime, that must be investigated seperately.
There is also the question of just how "valid" the permission you gave to A for purpose X be translated to C for any purposes other than X... And with X usually being "promotions related to a product I bought" X is of little sale value to C... purpose Y is however, very valuable... Hence C wants to buy address "blue" from business A, for purpose Y, now if purpose Y wasn't known at the time permission was given, how can permission be considered to have been given(say permission to advertise an invention that didn't exist when blue gave permission to A)?
Doesn't the burden it places on the victim(the person whose rights have been abused, by receiving mail whom in most other contexts would be considered illegal) signify to legislators that
1) to properly track when a permission is given, when most spammers close up shop within a few days and just reappear with the same list, under a different company, require an independant registry of permissions?
2) to be able to correlate permission with origins of spam, you require to be able to track the origin of any single email message. By that reasoning wouldn't sending a message with forged header be considered illegal until proven otherwise(a bit like how a radar detector or any other device that allows one to bypass enforcement of a law illegal)?
3) Since permission would have to be tracked by purpose and by sender, shouldn't access to that single registry be paid for to cover administration costs? And once headers are fully considered thrustworthy again, shouldn't it be possible to bill per spam sent?
I think those are all valid questions, that the legislators should consider