MS Speaks Out Against New Zealand's Anti Spam Bill

out_sp0k1n writes "Ryan Hamlin, head of Microsoft's Technology Care and Safety Group spoke out against New Zealand's proposed anti-spam legislation, warning that it could impinge on 'the amazing vehicle of e-mail marketing'. He also suggests that CAN-SPAM has been effective in deterring spammers. From The Article: 'Though often criticized as too meek, US anti-spam legislation - which relies on people opting out of spam - has proved effective in supporting prosecutions and deterring spammers.' Anyone else think that one message doesn't count as spam?"

Comments

It's not Law Yet, But M$ Lost

[tonyr60]

The proposed law draft, as it goes forward for consideration, does not reflect Microsoft's requirements. A single unsolicited email from an organisation touting their products will be considered SPAM.

So I wont' be receiving XP patches by mail again?

[CapnGrunge]

Opt-in or out are crap anyway, but opt-in doesn't have the catch of unsubscribing.

Re:I don't get it.

[rujholla]

They don't spam, and as far as I know they don't actively partner with those who do.

Umm didn't they just buy Clarion software -- formerly known as Gator. Isn't a big income source for spyware companies selling email addresses?

Re:Spam is spam

[aero2600-5]

"When I get email I think about where I have bought stuff from recently, to make sure I didn't forget to opt out of something."

As someone else in this discussion mentioned, time is your most valuable resource. You can't get it back, end of story. Thinking about who you may have forgotten to opt out of takes a bit of time and is, generally speaking, irritating. Remove the thinking and use a website like sneakemail.com and save yourself some time. By creating a new disposable e-mail address every time you create a new account with an online reseller, you remove all the guesswork. You receive a spam, and you know it's from one of two places. A) A mass-mailing using random e-mail addresses, or B) An e-mail sent to you from someone you have given your e-mail address to in the prcoess of doing business. Most spam of the 'A' type are blocked before you even see them. Even Yahoo! has gotten to the point where I only see about one of these a month. The spam of type 'B' will be labeled with the name of who you gave your e-mail address to. You know where the spammer got your e-mail address. The business either sold it, or had it stolen. If you wish to continue doing business with this person, you can contact them about the problem, or you delete the disposable address and never hear from them again.

Personally, I no longer have to deal with spam. Not even my bank has my real e-mail address. Neither does Slashdot for that matter.

CANSPAM law effective my ass

[nurb432]

I have NOT seen any decrease in spam since it was enacted.

It has steadily increased, as it has been doing for years.

Re:M$ is now an arbiter of the democratic process?

[jesterzog]

For what it's worth, Microsoft is (also) a New Zealand company. It was registered at the NZ Companies Office on 29 May 1991. It really is an American company, but I guess they at least have a claim to comment on New Zealand law.

Re:Once I signed up for Hot Mail... got spam inste

[flonker]

Try Mailinator. It's perfect for those disposable email addresses. There is no link to you other than an IP in an apache log file. (Most disposable email address providers require an email address to forward your mail to.)

Re:Microsoft serious about squashing SPAM?

[Moraelin]

It's especially that part about allowing them to send notifications for "new" stuff, regardless of whether you opted out before or not, that's especially worrying me. It's a free license to spam.

Think about it. It doesn't say new _categories_, so it doesn't even have to mean they'd have drop penis enlargement pills once you've opted out. They can make you opt out of _one_ _product_ at a time, then rename it or call it a new version, and spam you some more.

E.g., spam advertising porn, could spam you with a different combination of web site and category in each batch of mails, and opting out of one wouldn't prevent them from sending the next batch. They could just make a bogus "hosted site" for each batch, which just redirects to the main one, but hey, it's for a "new" service (site) you haven't yet opted out of. So they're allowed.

In fact, it makes it worse than no opt-out at all. To actually unsubscribe from all that, you'd have to actually open the message and look for the unsubscribe link for that product, then email the spammer. From a spammer's perspective it's actually better: they made you open and read his spam instead of just looking at the message and deleting it.

So seeing MS back such a license to spam with impunity, makes me really worry.