Vendors spamming NANOG attendees

Thu Jun 15 14:47:52 UTC 2017

> You make a good point. But I wonder how often spammers are so obvious, and I wonder if his "leveraging" falls amiss of CAN-SPAM's specific prohibition:
> 
> 
> (I) harvesting electronic mail addresses of the users of a website, proprietary service, or other online public forum operated by another person, without the authorization of such person; and
> 

Unfortunately, the actual language of that provision requires that the website from which it was scraped must also include a notice stating that the website will not "give, sell, or otherwise transfer addresses maintained by such website".

Here is the actual language:

"(i) the electronic mail address of the recipient was
obtained using an automated means from an Internet
website or proprietary online service operated by
another person, and such website or online service
included, at the time the address was obtained, a notice
stating that the operator of such website or online service
will not give, sell, or otherwise transfer
addresses maintained by such website or online service
to any other party for the purposes of initiating, or
enabling others to initiate, electronic mail messages;"

It would be interesting* if people had language printed right on their business cards along the lines of:

"The presence of my email address on this card does not constitute permission for you to email me absent a prior agreement, or to put my email address on a mailing list."

*And by interesting, I mean legally interesting. ;-)

Anne*

*Dictated due to broken wrist, please forgive top-posting and any weird grammar or typos

Anne P. Mitchell, 
Attorney at Law
Legislative Consultant
CEO/President, Institute for Social Internet Public Policy
Member, Cal. Bar Cyberspace Law Committee
Member, Colorado Cyber Committee
Member, Elevations Credit Union Member Council
Member, Board of Directors, Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop
Member, Board of Directors, Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation
Author: Section 6 of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 (the Federal anti-spam law)
Ret. Professor of Law, Lincoln Law School of San Jose
Ret. Chair, Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop