On 3/29/2006 14:11, Bruno Robichaud wrote:
> I see, well I understand what you saying but they no reason of being
> paranoid, no one here really know if the email list I'm using is legist or
> not but seem they already put a spammer tag on this already, believe it or
> not honest people exist in this world of the internet hehe :P My task is to
> make a mailing system that's all, I was toll many time that everything is
> legal and legist and Email are opt-in by the way but thx a lot guys for the
> recommendation because I see now that it's doesn't take much to be
> considered a spammer, there a lot of strict rule out there that I must
> follow. It's a touchy subject and I will be very careful to meet these
> recommendations because I don't want to bother people, I know the feeling
> and it's not fun at all.       
> 

There is a vast difference between what is "legal" and what is "right". The
U.S. CAN-SPAM law makes it legal to send spam, as long as certain conditions
are met. That does not mean that it is right to send spam. Doing it right means:

1) You do not accept a subscription request from an unverified source and
    automatically add that address to your mailing list. You must send a
    subscription confirmation request to the new address, instructing the
    *POTENTIAL* subscriber to take *EXPLICIT* action to confirm that he/she
    wants to be added to your list. If explicit confirmation is *NOT* received
    within a matter of days, the subscription request should be discarded
    and the address must *NOT* be added to the list. If you add addresses to
    your mailing list on the basis of unconfirmed subscription requests, you
    are a spammer.

2) You do not take a list of addresses which you collected for some other
    purpose and add them to the list, even if those addresses were collected
    properly. Just because I explicitly requested mail from your firm about
    product X, and explicitly confirmed my request, does not mean that I want
    to receive mail from your firm about products Y and Z. And if you repurpose
    lists, you are a spammer.

3) You do not acquire a list from some other source and add those addresses
    to your list. You have no way of knowing how or why those addresses were
    collected, but you can be absolutely certain that the owners of those
    addresses did not ask to receive spam from you. If you use other people's
    lists, you are a spammer.

4) You do not harvest email addresses from the web, from your own email
    archives, or from any other source, and add those addresses to your
    list. Just because an address has been exposed to you in some manner
    does not mean that the owner of that address wants to receive spam from
    you. If you use harvested addresses, you are a spammer.

Do it right, or don't do it.

--
Paul Russell, Senior Systems Administrator
OIT Messaging Services Team
University of Notre Dame
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