IP: Campaign spam is OK?

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Ari Ollikainen <Ari@OLTECO.com>
Date: Sat, 02 Mar 2002 13:30:43 -0800
To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
Subject: Campaign spam is OK?

    Bill Jones, Republican gubernatorial candidate's campaign
    apparently sent a million political e-mail messages as
    part of his campaign the other day, resulting in his web site
    being shut down.

    And the campaign spokesman doesn't see anything wrong with
    using mass email...saying that it's " ...an innovative way of
    direct voter contact."

    I a bit aghast that "... mass political e-mail messages do not
    violate anti-spamming laws in this country..." Why is such email
    from a single source NOT considered SPAM? Apparently the
    candidate's service provider, Atlantech.net, thought the
    mass emailing constituted SPAM...


URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/03/02/MN34023.DTL

    [...]

Word to the Wise, an anti-spamming consulting firm in Redwood City,
tracked the Jones e-mails and said last night that they were routed
apparently without permission through a server in South Korea.

Although the mass political e-mail messages do not violate
anti-spamming laws in this country, Steve Atkins, chief technical
officer for Word to the Wise, said the use of the South Korean server
may have violated laws in that country.

The high-tech dustup began Wednesday, when Jones' campaign sent out
about 1 million e-mails. Most went to California addresses, but some
ended up as far away as Canada, England and France.

Jones spokesman Darrel Ng denied the campaign staff had knowingly
done anything wrong and defended the use of e-mails. He acknowledged
receiving a couple of dozen complaints.

Ng said the campaign hired a Southern California firm called
Strevenue to distribute the e-mails. Ng said it was his understanding
that the company relied on legitimate means to get the e-mails out.

He apologized for any errant e-mail messages sent to non-California
residents and said the campaign would not condone any unauthorized
use of foreign servers.

"We see this as an innovative way of direct voter contact," said Ng.

The Jones campaign previously sent out mass e-mails in January and December.


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  You can't depend on your judgement when your imagination is out of focus.
                                  -- Mark Twain.
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        OLTECO                    Ari Ollikainen
        P.O. BOX 20088            Networking Architecture and Technology
        Stanford, CA              Ari@OLTECO.com
        94309-0088                415.517.3519


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