Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

German Court: "Sharing" Your Amazon Purchases Is Spamming (reuters.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the keep-it-to-yourself dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A court in Germany has ruled that the 'Share' links which Amazon provides to customers directly after making a purchase at the site are unlawful. The "Share" functionality provides buttons which allow the consumer to signal a new purchase via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or email. The court, ratifying an earlier decision made at a lower court, declared that emails initiated via the Share function constitute "unsolicited advertising and unreasonable harassment."

16 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. Seems like freedom of speech to me by mmiscool · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seems like freedom of speech to me

    1. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by randm.ca · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What do the emails look like? Is there any "speech" from the user, or do they just plug in an email address and amazon does all the "speaking"?

    2. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's freedom of speech if you take the link, copy it into Facebook or Twitter and say "just got me one of these babies".

      It's spam when a commercial entity gives you a quick means of shilling their product without stopping to think "do my friends really give a shit?" It's doubly spam if your friends email is ever provided to Amazon in this process without their consent.

      Because if your friends didn't give Amazon permission to send email, pretending like you spontaneously sent the email is kind of bullshit.

      No, sorry, making commercial communication appear to have been a spontaneous outpouring by consumers is a shady way of getting around stuff like opt-in.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by frogcode · · Score: 3, Interesting

      While I'm sure Germany has laws that allow people to speak their minds, It's probably not like the United State's First Amendment which at times doesn't apply either in cases of libel or slander.

    4. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by stephanruby · · Score: 3, Informative

      What do the emails look like? Is there any "speech" from the user, or do they just plug in an email address and amazon does all the "speaking"?

      I assume it is like most commercial Share buttons.

      Amazon pre-fills the form pretending to speak on behalf of the buyer, but that person can edit that text however he/she wants.

    5. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Personally I think people should be allowed to use the quick one-button solution. It let's me know who I can unfriend/unfollow for being a prat.

      But who I am kidding, most user generated content on social media sites isn't much better than this spam. I hope the kill off the rest of the "share to x" buttons out there because there's plenty of other crap beyond just Amazon or online retailers.

      I had a great idea for a Facebook replacement, but it turns out there's already plenty of prior art for meeting at a pub and having a beer with friends so I don't think I can get a patent.

    6. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Shady and tacky, but still should be protected against government intrusion.

      There are spam laws, you can't just pretend they don't exist.

      I sure as hell don't want to use an internet where any asshole can decided that I don't get a vote in if I see their commercial speech or not.

      Sorry, take your anti-government crap elsewhere. Accepting all spam as free speech is idiotic. You do not have the freedom to send me unsolicited commercial email just because you're an ass who thinks its his right.

      Fuck that. The onslaught of bullshit from corporations would be impossible.

      I don't give a shit about what some asshole in marketing believes is the free speech of his company.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    7. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's doubly spam if your friends email is ever provided to Amazon in this process without their consent.

      THIS. It is not okay to spam me just because one of your customers has me in their address book, Facebook friends, etc. and you got their permission. You did not get my permission. The amount of bullshit spam I was getting from LinkedIn, because other people installed that app and it harvested all of their contacts to send spam to, got so bad I had to block LinkedIn's IP ranges from connecting to my mail server. Some companies think it's reasonable to spam their customers and everyone they know, as if there's some type of opt-in-by-proxy. It doesn't work that way.

    8. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by pla · · Score: 5, Insightful

      without stopping to think "do my friends really give a shit?"

      So, basically no different from the entire rest of Facebook?

      "I just ate a bag of Doritos" - I don't give a shit.
      "Look at these pictures of my new puppy/baby/ocelot/car/hairstyle" - I don't give a shit.
      "I just bought a new Dyson Vacuum on Amazon" - I don't give a shit.
      "Sally has just changed her relationship status to emotional blackmail" - I don't give a shit.
      "I just took a great big shit" - Nope, I still don't give a shit.

    9. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by penguinoid · · Score: 4, Funny

      I couldn't agree more. In fact, there's a petition to prevent people from sending one-click spam to other people. Click here to sign it. It will automatically detect who your representative is from your IP address and send him a letter.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    10. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      You know..I've seen these buttons on the completion of sales...and wondered if that many people actually share or notify friends when they BUY something?!?!

      Seriouslyl? I mean...why?

      I know there are some people out there who like to brag, or show off....but I can't believe that is in the majority out there, is it?

      Are there really a significant enough number of people that actually 'share' some if not all of what they buy online??

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    11. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by Xenx · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But.... ocelot.

    12. Re:Seems like freedom of speech to me by pregister · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why do you not realize it isn't the quality of your friends' posts that is poor, but the quality of your friends?

  2. Advertising is not a freedom of speech issue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Seems like freedom of speech to me

    All spammers could claim the same "freedom of speech" defence.

    Fortunately the world is not quite stupid enough to accept that as a valid excuse for what is very clearly unsolicited advertising.

    1. Re:Advertising is not a freedom of speech issue by ScentCone · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Fortunately the world is not quite stupid enough to accept that as a valid excuse for what is very clearly unsolicited advertising.

      It's not unsolicited advertising. If you don't like seeing communication that the friends and contacts YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO HEAR FROM are sending out through deliberate action on their part, then you simply have poor choice in friends and are trying to blame someone else.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    2. Re:Advertising is not a freedom of speech issue by thoromyr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      in what way is the advertising unsolicited? the receiver did not ask their friends to spam them.

      You wouldn't by any chance represent a sales or marketing type, would you? I had to deal with a spammer for a while (as in, supporting his activities). Even though he was buying software to harvest emails to send unwanted and unsolicited email, he too found ways to justify his activities.

      What was particularly memorable was dealing with his complaints about his spam being filtered out as being spam. He insisted and swore up and down that it wasn't. Unfortunately for him, spam filters are pretty good these days and even if *he* as the *sender* didn't feel like it was spam, the rest of the world disagreed.

      So, yes, it *is* unsolicited advertising. I'm glad you don't have my email address because by the sound of things you wouldn't honor any request to quit fucking spamming me.