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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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To: Kaslin
Obama Wants to Spam Your Email, But is it Legal?

Of course it's legal! If Obama says it's legal, it's legal! No worries!

21 posted on 12/14/2011 3:14:34 PM PST by FamiliarFace
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To: satan
Report them to the U.S. Secret Service for "Africa-Based Schemes."
22 posted on 12/14/2011 3:24:31 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Viking2002
I already set my e-mail to bounce and delete anything sent from the whitehouse.gov domain.........

It's not going to come from there. It's going to come from numerous email accounts set up by the commie friends of obama.

23 posted on 12/14/2011 3:28:46 PM PST by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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To: Kaslin
Ha, Ha, Ha.....
They are giving away this crap again too

Important: By making a donation today, you'll be automatically entered for a chance to have dinner with Barack and Michelle Obama. By clicking on the "Submit" button below or otherwise participating in the promotion, you agree to be bound by these Official Rules and represent that you satisfy all of the eligibility requirements.

24 posted on 12/14/2011 3:28:46 PM PST by libertarian27 (Check my profile page for the FReeper Online Cookbook 2011)
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To: Kaslin

“Simply enter their name and email address below. Then, we'll send them a message letting them know they inspired you to donate.”

 

So, we will know who gave away our name and email address.   All what I have to do is use a proxy server and start signing them up at different porno sites and extremist sites.  Multilevel marketing sites are good, too.  They can kiss good-bye for their email address very soon!

 

25 posted on 12/14/2011 3:46:30 PM PST by OneHun
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To: OneHun

LOL! Chances are though that they are already on those types of email lists. :)


26 posted on 12/14/2011 4:05:03 PM PST by tookiesrcookies
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To: Kaslin
He's already in bed with google. How many more addresses does he need?

What a pathetic excuse we have for a pResident.

27 posted on 12/14/2011 4:13:03 PM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal The 16th Amendment!)
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To: Kaslin
But is it Legal?

What the He11 kinda question is that? This is nobama, remember?

28 posted on 12/14/2011 4:23:43 PM PST by upchuck (Let's have the Revolution NOW before we get dumbed down to the point that we can't.)
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To: FamiliarFace

By GOD I hope to get an email from these bastards. They’ll get a response they’ll never forget (and will probably get me arrested).


29 posted on 12/14/2011 4:30:17 PM PST by Marathoner ("Government is not reason. Government is not eloquence. It is force." George Washington)
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To: Viking2002

I used to get the weakly reports of the Bush White House to which I subscribed. I enjoyed reading them


30 posted on 12/14/2011 4:32:20 PM PST by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: DGHoodini

31 posted on 12/14/2011 4:44:52 PM PST by 4Liberty (88% of Americans are NON-UNION. We value honest, peaceful Free trade-NOT protectionist CARTELS)
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To: Kaslin

Once again, imagine the response by the Democrats and their media propagandists had a Republican done this. It’d be a lead story. FNC might even issue a Fox News ALERT!


32 posted on 12/14/2011 4:45:53 PM PST by FourPeas ("Maladjusted and wigging out is no way to go through life, son." -hg)
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To: Kaslin
Stupid political stunts like this show how uncivil, immature and anti-USA Democrats really are.

First, the very few liberals who have my personal email address are not going to donate their own money to anyone.

Second, they might have a passing urge to participate in this dirty tricks technique, if it was both “free”, and they thought they couldn't possibly be traced as the originator.

And finally, every liberal who has my personal email address knows that retribution would be swift, certain, and decisive.

33 posted on 12/14/2011 4:52:55 PM PST by sarasmom
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To: Kaslin
If we've learned anything by now, there isn't a single law that this regime isn't willing to break.

Mark

34 posted on 12/14/2011 6:57:53 PM PST by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
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To: Kaslin

I get e-mail from Obama all the time. The unique way they address me in the letters lets me know that they got my address from AT&T


35 posted on 12/14/2011 9:16:31 PM PST by marsh2
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To: Kaslin

Everything else Barry does is illegal. Why not spamming email? Whats one more crime? Its the Chicago way.


36 posted on 12/14/2011 9:34:39 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: marsh2

I have a special email setup that is subscribed to a bunch of Democrat campaigns - Obama plus the local Democrats in my area. That email address is only for that stuff. I like seeing what they are up to. I recommend others do the same.


37 posted on 12/14/2011 9:57:29 PM PST by af_vet_rr
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt

“see something say something”

is a line from star ship troopers.

sky marshal big sis.


38 posted on 12/15/2011 10:55:46 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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