Newsgroups: ba.market.computers,ba.market.misc,ba.forsale,misc.forsale
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!agate!headwall.Stanford.EDU!CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU!SAIL.Stanford.EDU!andy
From: andy@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (Andy Freeman)
Subject: Re: Is itproper net etiquette to advertise a company's junk mail list?
Message-ID: <1993Apr16.191544.15078@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: news@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU
Organization: Computer Science Department,  Stanford University.
References: <1993Apr14.232613.18264@times.aux.apple.com> <C5JCCG.3Bn@tsoft.net> <1993Apr15.234451.15707@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1993 19:15:44 GMT
Lines: 42

In article <1993Apr15.234451.15707@leland.Stanford.EDU> thomper@leland.Stanford.EDU (Dale Buford Thompson) writes:

>>My company maintains a 20,000+ mailing list which is regularly rented for
> ^^^^^^^^^^

Oh no!  Someone is provided useful information AND mentioned that they
made money in the field.  Don't they know that usenet is reserved for
uninformed speculation by people trying to sell their personal stuff
(from houses to dead pcs) at a huge markup/trying to unload stuff they
bought from their company at just under retail, and other
"non-commercial" activities.

>>a MS Windows utility product in the $100 range, and is available through
>                                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>Direct Media in CT., at $0.10 per name.  Please let your direct mail
>                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   !!!!!!^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
>>marketing rep. know about this..  Thanks.
>>               !!!! !!!!! !!!!                                             
>
>It is my impression that net etiquette does not allow companies to
>use the net to directly advertise their products.

The net is not "supposed" to be a dumping ground for free ads, but
reserving it for tripe doesn't seem to be a significant improvement.

>In addition to improper etiquette, this product is a mailing list
>used for generating junk mail.  

So?  Either they target it well enough to pay for it, in other words,
they manage to send it to people who want the stuff (in which case it
is junk only for the "rest" and the transaction costs are borne
appropriately in this case) or they go bankrupt.  Seems fair to me.

>Am I correct in assuming this is improper, and if so, what can be 
>done to penalize such an improper use?

You could hold your breath.  You could kill offending messages as
they come onto your machine and refuse to send them any further,
but not until you turn blue.

-andy
--
