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Obama Wants to Spam Your Email, But is it Legal?
Townhall.com ^ | December 14, 2011 | Katie Pavlich

Posted on 12/14/2011 2:42:21 PM PST by Kaslin

Barack Obama wants to have some "fun" at the expense of republicans by asking lefties to give their email addresses to his re-election campaign. Why? So Obama campaign workers can spam your inbox with lefty propaganda.

The Obama presidential campaign is launching an effort to collect Republican email addresses by inviting its supporters to submit information about their Republican associates to the Obama 2012 website.

The effort could help the Obama campaign build a database that would enable it to target Republican voters during the general election campaign. But, more perniciously, it could also become part of an Democratic effort to influence Republican primary voters to select a candidate Democrats think Obama could most easily defeat.

The Obama information collection effort is cast under the mischievous guise of asking Obama supporters to “have a little fun at the expense of a Republican in your life” by signing them up to get an email from the Obama campaign ribbing them for having “inspired” the Obama supporter to donate.

From Obama's site:

Photobucket

It is a violation of federal law, the Can Spam Law, for a business to spam your email box if you did not give them your email address. It is illegal for them to send you a single email unless you personally signed up for it. Lefty "friends" can hand over your email address, but it is illegal for the Obama campaign to spam your inbox without your permission.

Do you use email in your business? The CAN-SPAM Act, a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.


Despite its name, the CAN-SPAM Act doesn’t apply just to bulk email. It covers all commercial messages, which the law defines as “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service,” including email that promotes content on commercial websites. The law makes no exception for business-to-business email. That means all email – for example, a message to former customers announcing a new product line – must comply with the law.

Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000, so non-compliance can be costly. But following the law isn’t complicated. Here’s a rundown of CAN-SPAM’s main requirements:


1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message

2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.

3. Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.

4. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.

5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.

6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.

7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.

Should we take bets on how the Justice Department will weasel their way around this one in the name of Obama's re-election? After all, Obama thinks he is above the law, this is just one more example.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: email; gopemails; obama; obamacampaign; spam
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1 posted on 12/14/2011 2:42:25 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Barrack Obama wants to have some fun?...

I got your fun right here, Barroco!


2 posted on 12/14/2011 2:46:27 PM PST by AngelesCrestHighway
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To: Kaslin

So who you gonna tell if it’s illegal?


3 posted on 12/14/2011 2:46:52 PM PST by satan (Plumbing new depths of worthlessness on a daily basis.)
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To: Kaslin

Political email isn’t “commercial” email. The Can Spam law doesn’t apply here. It’s creepy, but legal.


4 posted on 12/14/2011 2:50:06 PM PST by xjcsa (Ridiculing the ridiculous since the day I was born.)
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To: Kaslin

If legality is the only thing standing in his way then nothing is standing in his way.


5 posted on 12/14/2011 2:51:40 PM PST by gorush (History repeats itself because human nature is static)
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To: Kaslin

The illegal Halfrican Kenyan Muslim usurper can spam away to his heart’s content. He’ll never get any Leftist to hand over my contact data.


6 posted on 12/14/2011 2:52:28 PM PST by Old Sarge (RIP FReeper Skyraider (1930-2011) - You Are Missed)
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To: Kaslin
"Honor opt-out requests promptly. ... 10 business days..."

Well, we already know that Holder thinks "a couple of weeks" means at least 3 months.

7 posted on 12/14/2011 2:54:32 PM PST by alancarp (Liberals are all for shared pain... until they're included in the pain group.)
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To: Kaslin
Political advertising IS NOT COMMERCIAL IN NATURE.

But that doesn't matter ~ if Goober here tries to slag out my e-mail account with spam I will tell everybody where he rented his chillun' and who his wife is sleeping with.

8 posted on 12/14/2011 2:55:26 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: satan

spam@uce.gov


9 posted on 12/14/2011 2:55:38 PM PST by EBH (God Humbles Nations, Leaders, and Peoples before He uses them for His Purpose)
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To: Kaslin

Sounds more like a new Soviet way of building an ‘Enemies List’.


10 posted on 12/14/2011 2:55:54 PM PST by DGHoodini (Iran Azadi)
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To: satan

I am gunna complain to the Dept. of “Just-us” ...
...and then watch 2 or 3 black guys laugh themselves to death .

They will put my request right behind Congressman Issa’s request for more information /memos/ emails on “Fast and Furious” , right after they get through counting the cartel money that they laundered.


11 posted on 12/14/2011 2:56:46 PM PST by Tilted Irish Kilt ( (The Obama Adminstration: 2nd wave of attacks on America after 9/11) by GlockThe Vote)
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To: Kaslin
I already set my e-mail to bounce and delete anything sent from the whitehouse.gov domain.........

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

12 posted on 12/14/2011 2:59:33 PM PST by Viking2002 (Hippies smell.)
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To: Kaslin

“Sounds more like a new Soviet way of building an ‘Enemies List’ “

EXACTLY !!
“If you see something , ..tell someone” ~ Napolitano

This might end up being the start of the ‘Master List “.


13 posted on 12/14/2011 3:00:33 PM PST by Tilted Irish Kilt ( (The Obama Adminstration: 2nd wave of attacks on America after 9/11) by GlockThe Vote)
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To: Kaslin

Sounds like the Nazi Spy on your neighbor program.


14 posted on 12/14/2011 3:00:55 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: AngelesCrestHighway

Hmmmmm. Let’s see. WE have g*ns. They don’t. Hmmmmmmm.


15 posted on 12/14/2011 3:01:44 PM PST by Doc Savage ("I've shot people I like a lot more,...for a lot less!" Raylan Givins)
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt

attackwatch


16 posted on 12/14/2011 3:02:21 PM PST by GlockThe Vote (The Obama Adminstration: 2nd wave of attacks on America after 9/11)
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To: Kaslin

If I get one, I’ll respond with my most potent virus...


17 posted on 12/14/2011 3:02:21 PM PST by Gaffer
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To: Gaffer

Send the virus along with a GFY message.


18 posted on 12/14/2011 3:07:45 PM PST by Mouton (Voting is an opiate of the electorate. Nothing changes no matter who wins..)
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To: Mouton

Sigh....I wish I really had a potent virus..........about all I really could muster up is a really bad beer-fart..and that won’t transmit well....


19 posted on 12/14/2011 3:10:24 PM PST by Gaffer
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To: Kaslin
Barack Obama wants to have some "fun" at the expense of republicans by asking lefties to give their email addresses to his re-election campaign. Why? So Obama campaign workers can spam your inbox with lefty propaganda.

They must mean more spam. I already get spam from them! Case in point:
TIMOTHY GEITHNER...THE U.S DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURT SECRETARY [govt takeover of Nigerian 419 scam]

20 posted on 12/14/2011 3:10:57 PM PST by Alex Murphy (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2703506/posts?page=518#518)
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