"Part 6: I Am Going To Sue You Because You Sent Me An Email About the Gary Halbert Memorial and Farewell Party Videos On Youtube.com" by Ralph Zuranski
I am confident you enjoyed this email series. The ultimate question was "Did I spam this person as defined by the Can Spam Act?
After checking with my heroes who are experts in internet law, their answer was a resounding NO!
1. The email was not commercial in nature and I was not selling anything.
The law requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender's valid physical postal address. Your message must contain clear and conspicuous notice that the message is an advertisement or solicitation and that the recipient can opt out of receiving more commercial email from you. It also must include your valid physical postal address.
2. I had all my business contact information in the email, including my phone, email, website, address and name.
There was no attempt at duplicity.
The law requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a "menu" of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.
Ralph Zuranski
In Search Of Heroes Program
Heroes and heroines rise up.
The world needs you NOW!
3639 Midway Dr. Ste. B299
San Diego, CA 92110
619-990-9492 cell
619-819-5533 office
wwww.insearchofheroes.com
rzuranski@cox.net
3. This person could easily have sent me a email asking to be removed them from my list or called me. I would have been happy to do so. They had every opportunity to op-out.
Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your commercial email. When you receive an opt-out request, the law gives you 10 business days to stop sending email to the requestor's email address. You cannot help another entity send email to that address, or have another entity send email on your behalf to that address. Finally, it's illegal for you to sell or transfer the email addresses of people who choose not to receive your email, even in the form of a mailing list, unless you transfer the addresses so another entity can comply with the law.
4. This person entered into a dialog with me. They threatened to harm me financially when all they had to do was ask to be removed from my list.
5. Also, I know this person and this person knows me. This person has benefited from my photographic skills. You would think they would show a little amount of appreciation rather than threatening to sue for trying to keep them informed about an important event in internet history even if they did not admire Gary Halbert.
6. There was no misleading or false header information.
The law bans false or misleading header information. Your email's "From," "To," and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email. It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.
7. Ultimately, this person's advice to go read the Can Spam laws was a blessing in disguise. If you send out any email, it is critical you understand this law. The penalties are huge. With all the difficulties of email delivery and the Can Spam Law, is it any wonder internet marketers are migrating to RSS Feeds.