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Marketers Battle Netizens In Junk/Spam War
The name of the war that's going on depends on which side (or
sideline) you're on. You may call it the war over "spam," or "junk
email" "direct email" or just a damn nuisance. Here's a brief
history of the battleground and issues.
In the beginning, there was direct mail, and marketers saw that
it was good. The United States Postal Service provided cost-effective
bulk mail rates, and marketers could get news and product/service
promotions to potential customers. People complain about junk
mail, but they actually look at some of it and act on some of
it. It works. Really.
When the fax machine arrived - most of us are old enough to remember
that technological event - the war moved to a new battle ground.
Junk or direct faxes. Consider the huge differences between faxes
and direct mail. Faxes convey a sense of urgency and are extremely
cheap (but not free) to send out. The biggest difference is that
unlike direct mail, direct faxes actually cost the recipient money
to receive - ink, paper and use of the fax machine.
The United States of America government responded. U.S. Code
Title 46 - Telegraphs, Telephones, and Radiotelephones, Chapter
5 - Wire or Radio Communication, Subchapter II - Common Carriers,
states, "It shall be unlawful for a person in the United States
to ... use any telephone facsimile machine, computer, or other
device to send an unsolicited advertisement to a telephone facsimile."
In short, junk/direct faxes are illegal in the USA. The code even
mentions a potential $500 fine. No doubt, however, nearly all
of us put up with junk faxes rather than hire a lawyer to sue
or call a government agency to report this illegal activity.
Now, only a couple of decades after the birth of direct faxes,
comes email. Marketers like junk/direct email - at least some
of them do - because it's cheap! It's not free - there's an email
list to buy and manage or services to pay for - but it is cheap.
What's more, the potential reach is in the millions. Or tens of
millions.
Enter the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE).
CAUCE has been lobbying at the federal level to make junk e-mail
illegal. To quote from www.cauce.org/spam,
"in 1997, CAUCE proposed an amendment to the Federal statute which
outlaws junk "faxes" to also prohibit junk e-mail."
Four years later, CAUCE doesn't have its amendment, so it appears
the groundswell of people who hate junk email is insufficient
to get action from the Federal government. CAUCE wants a law because
self-policing isn't working. Remember "flaming?" It didn't stop
spam. What's more, the fact that most ISP's prohibit their customers
from sending out spam/junk email hasn't stopped the onslaught.
The terminology itself shows how sharply the two sides are divided.
CAUCE identifies its members as "netizens" opposed to "spam."
Some marketers simply offer millions of email addresses for sale
as perfectly legitimate "email marketing." Their argument might
be that since many of the email addresses have been collected
from Websites, it's okay to use them.
Where do we go from here? Next time, I'll review options for
"netizens" and options for "marketers." In the meanwhile, feel
free to add your own opinion by emailing me.
This article first appeared as a column written
by Dave Tedlock, NetOutcomes' president, for Inside Tucson
Business and/or the New Mexico Business Weekly.
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