Do You Know If This Is Legal With Mailing Lists?

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  • jimb
    Confirmed User
    • Feb 2005
    • 2514

    #1

    Do You Know If This Is Legal With Mailing Lists?

    Hi Everyone,

    I was just wondering if anyone around here knew the CANSPAM Laws well enough to tell me if this was legal or not:

    Can you have a place to input your email address to a mailing list and have a checkbox of Terms of Service that basically states that upon submitting your email address to the mailing list you can NEVER unsubscribe.

    Is that legal? If you tell the user upfront that they can never unsubscribe and they are now legally bound to receive this email for the life of their email address?

    Thanks!

    Jim
  • kernelpanic
    Too lazy to set a custom title
    • Jan 2005
    • 2961

    #2
    Not legal, by a long mile.


    ZangoCash - Turn Your Traffic Into Ca$h.
    $.40 Per Install - No Tier

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    • jimb
      Confirmed User
      • Feb 2005
      • 2514

      #3
      Originally posted by kernelpanic
      Not legal, by a long mile.
      I thought so, thanks!

      Jim

      Comment

      • SmokeyTheBear
        ►SouthOfHeaven
        • Jun 2004
        • 28609

        #4
        you can write anything in a tos , doesnt mean it will stand up int he courts..

        Ever seen those signs at amusement parks saying " we are NOT liable use at your own risk etc etc " but people still sue amusement parks all the time..
        hatisblack at yahoo.com

        Comment

        • kernelpanic
          Too lazy to set a custom title
          • Jan 2005
          • 2961

          #5
          If you're that concerned about it, why don't you set up a shell organization, some bulletproof landing pages, and keep mailing anyway?


          ZangoCash - Turn Your Traffic Into Ca$h.
          $.40 Per Install - No Tier

          Comment

          • Your Mothers Secret
            Confirmed User
            • Jul 2005
            • 240

            #6
            test it on hotmail.com and msn.com and let us know what happens

            Comment

            • jimb
              Confirmed User
              • Feb 2005
              • 2514

              #7
              Originally posted by kernelpanic
              If you're that concerned about it, why don't you set up a shell organization, some bulletproof landing pages, and keep mailing anyway?
              Thats a good idea!

              Jim

              Comment

              • jimb
                Confirmed User
                • Feb 2005
                • 2514

                #8
                Originally posted by Your Mothers Secret
                test it on hotmail.com and msn.com and let us know what happens
                LOL

                Jim

                Comment

                • SmokeyTheBear
                  ►SouthOfHeaven
                  • Jun 2004
                  • 28609

                  #9
                  the way they get around this is to simply sell their lists to themselves under diff company names..

                  So COMPANY#1 has to honour the request from SURFER#1 to be removed but there no law against selling the list before the name was removed to COMPANY#2
                  hatisblack at yahoo.com

                  Comment

                  • Haydos
                    Confirmed User
                    • Jan 2006
                    • 308

                    #10
                    Originally posted by jimb
                    Hi Everyone,

                    I was just wondering if anyone around here knew the CANSPAM Laws well enough to tell me if this was legal or not:

                    Can you have a place to input your email address to a mailing list and have a checkbox of Terms of Service that basically states that upon submitting your email address to the mailing list you can NEVER unsubscribe.

                    Is that legal? If you tell the user upfront that they can never unsubscribe and they are now legally bound to receive this email for the life of their email address?

                    Thanks!

                    Jim
                    What the Law Requires

                    It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a "menu" of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.

                    Comment

                    • Haydos
                      Confirmed User
                      • Jan 2006
                      • 308

                      #11
                      Originally posted by SmokeyTheBear
                      the way they get around this is to simply sell their lists to themselves under diff company names..

                      So COMPANY#1 has to honour the request from SURFER#1 to be removed but there no law against selling the list before the name was removed to COMPANY#2
                      Even this is a little prohibitive

                      "Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor's email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it's illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law."

                      Interesting point that you have 10 more days to 'email' a user who has opted out.....!!!

                      Comment

                      • SmokeyTheBear
                        ►SouthOfHeaven
                        • Jun 2004
                        • 28609

                        #12
                        Originally posted by Haydos
                        Even this is a little prohibitive

                        "Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor's email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it's illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law."

                        Interesting point that you have 10 more days to 'email' a user who has opted out.....!!!

                        the way they get around this is by selling the lists BEFORE they have opted out..

                        You basically make 10 dummy corporations.. each has a copy of the full list.. after the first company has mailed the shit out of the lists and gotten complaints they simply use the next company to mail those users and do an OPPOSITE scrub , scrubbing only valid people fromt he first list ( thus everyone left overis people who opted out )
                        hatisblack at yahoo.com

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