Larry Stone writes: > Brad, I'm glad you added that. But it raises an interesting topic of > discussion which is why is e-mail held to a different standard than > other means of communication.
Because it's different. First, the costs are several orders of magnitude cheaper. Second, identifying the agent who caused an email to be sent (who doesn't want to be identified) is orders of magnitude harder, let alone forcing them to appear in court. > Now have any of them given permission to be added to a mailing > list? The software you use is irrelevant. Did they give you permission to send them email? As you explain it, implicitly, they did. Between you and them, legally and ethically, cased closed. The problem is that email operates at internet speed, for good and for bad. ISPs can have their whole IP block blacklisted within seconds after a mailing goes out. They don't have time for drawn out due process; if they receive a complaint, they need to make a decision quickly. > Nobody asks for confirmed opt-in for snail mail mailings or phone > calls. So why is e-mail held to a different standard? Practically speaking, because it's not possible to for random individuals to stop snail mail or phone calls simply by setting up a special-purpose nameserver (or a filter in the MTA of a mega-ISP). To stop snail mail or phone calls, a third party needs to go through the courts. Furthermore, even if I get banned from sending mass mail through the USPS, the rest of my zip code is unaffected. That's not necessarily true if you get your ISP's whole IP block listed on one of the black holes. ------------------------------------------------------ Mailman-Users mailing list Mailman-Users@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/mailman-users Mailman FAQ: http://wiki.list.org/x/AgA3 Searchable Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/ Unsubscribe: http://mail.python.org/mailman/options/mailman-users/archive%40jab.org Security Policy: http://wiki.list.org/x/QIA9
