Even with "good intent" the message in question is clearly in violation
of CAN-SPAM and Cal. Bus. Prof. Code Sec. 17529, of which the sender was
informed of when my server was accessed. It was very clearly an
"electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial
advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service." The
sender did not have my direct consent to deliver such messages, nor did
they have a preexisting business relationship with me.
There was no notification that subscribing to this list would result in
off-list commercial messages. There is no way to opt out of these
messages. The message in question did not conform to the requirements of
CAN-SPAM in regard to, at least:
* Identifying the message as an advertisement
* Including the valid physical postal address of the sender, recognized
by the US Postal Service
* Providing an opt-out mechanism (at all in this case), compliant with
the CAN-SPAM requirements
Yes, in this particular instance I found the content to be not
distasteful; however is is very clearly "spam" as legally defined in the
US and in California.
