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           Cyberlaw:
Spamming (pre-Can SPAM, note that
this may not longer be accurate and any information on this page should be
confirmed before accepting it as accurate. Parry Aftab will be updating this
page.)
Another marketing tool is e-mail.
Spam, formally known as unsolicited commercial e-mail, is direct marketing
brought online. Buy a list of e-mail addresses, and send out a massive mailing
for people to come visit your website.
Spam is also the device of choice
for pornographic sites. Such sites often send out e-mails with misleading
“subject” lines, and fake return e-mail addresses, flooding the services of
e-mail providers as well as the mailboxes of the recipients. Because of these
abuses, several states have enacted anti-spamming legislation. But that
legislation applies to legitimate businesses as well. And it may not apply
simply to “bulk” emails.
The anti-spamming laws generally
fall into two categories. One type prohibits spam that has a false origin or a
false or misleading subject line. Even the best intentioned website can run
afoul of these laws. For example, a site that lets users send email postcards
to friends, and shows the user’s address in the “from” line, but routes
“replies” back to the website itself, has just used a “false origin.”
The second category of anti-spamming
laws simply limits the sending of spam to that which is allowed by the terms of
service of email service providers. This second class of laws is frighteningly
broad, and probably unenforceable at the extremes. Email service providers
generally have policies prohibiting the sending of “bulk” email. But several of
the states with laws in the second category do not contain any requirement that
there be any particular quantity of unsolicited commercial email before the
statute applies. So conceivably, an email service provider could prohibit the
sending of any unsolicited commercial email in whatever quantity.
Several of the statutes define “unsolicited” as an email neither requested by or
consented to by the recipient, or where there is no existing relationship with
the recipient. So a site that has a service where a user can supply a friend’s
email address so that friend can receive some email from the website is
“unsolicited” and may violate some state’s anti-spam legislation.
Most of the legislation applies to
email that are routed from, through, or to email service providers located in
their state. Since website operators typically do not know where their email
recipients are actually located, they cannot take the risk of ignoring any of
the state statutes.
As with contests, unsolicited
commercial e-mail must comply with the laws of the most restrictive states.
Does only one state require that the word “advertisement” appear in the subject
line? Then all such email must contain that statement.
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Parry
Aftab, Esq., 
Marvel and
all character names and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of
Marvel Characters, Inc., and are used with permission. TM & © 2004 Marvel
Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. “Super Heroes” is a Co-owned registered
Trademark.