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Misunderstanding The New Spam Law And Spammers
from the let's-try-that-again... dept
There are plenty of reasons to think that the new CAN-SPAM law that was signed this week is terrible. We've been pointing a number of reasons why this law is likely to make things worse, not better. However, reading the following article, by someone who is apparently an "analyst" makes me wonder about the writer's analytical skills. He suggests that the law is bad, because spam is good. He says that occasionally, you get something good in the spam, and this law will stop people from getting things they might want. Except, apparently, this analyst hasn't read the law, because it actually allows spamming. The only thing it forbids is using false headers to spam. Anyway, if you wanted to know who buys from spam, apparently, it's this guy - because, occasionally, he sees something worthwhile in the spam he gets. Second, this guy claims that spammers don't want to spam people who don't want their spam, and would be happy with a smaller list of interested parties. That's been proven wrong time and time again. Spammers, these days, are making money based on the size of their lists - which they sell to others. Therefore, they do want more names. These aren't sophisticated marketers we're talking about who understand why targeted marketing makes more sense than untargeted blasting. What they do understand is that when selling their email lists or their ability to spam, the bigger numbers they can show, the more money they believe they'll make.
Reader Comments
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It is a shame he does not ask for comments.....
Lets jus say I would have a word or two to bombard his eyesockets.
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Let's say the obvious thing about the new law:
If the new law causes everyone to get lots of spam that is "legal", people will be furious with their lawmakers and the law will be changed.
It's really a "can spam for now" law. Probably no more than three months.
- The Precision Blogger
http://precision-blogging.blogspot.com
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Re: Let's say the obvious thing about the new law:
If they could change the law in 3 months that would be great. I'm not nearly as optimistic, though. They don't seem to have any measure in place to see if the law works at all. Instead, they're just going to blame "lack of enforcement" and say "we need more time". I'm afraid it will be years before someone realizes that this law makes the spam problem WORSE, not better.
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CAN_SPAM
The law makes forged headers illegal. That will stop 100% of the spam that I get.
I dare anyone to send out one million messages per day that is 100% honest.
The law will work, stop looking at the 1% that is useless.
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Re: CAN_SPAM
That makes two assumptions:
(1) Spammers will obey this law.
(2) You won't get a ton of new "legit" spam from marketers.
I think both assumptions are wrong.
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