Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of law, culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.

http://news.com.com/2010-1028-5213287.html?tag=nefd.acpro

Political spam as national pastime
May 17, 2004, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh

Aaron Russo wants your vote so badly, he's willing to spam you for it.

Last week, Russo, a Hollywood producer who is running for president as a 
Libertarian Party candidate, fired off thousands of unsolicited e-mail 
messages announcing his campaign and asking recipients to "help support 
Russo financially" with "automatic monthly contributions."

Russo, whose films include "The Rose" and "Trading Places," is not 
alone. Political spam has become a thoroughly nonpartisan communications 
technique, with Democrats, Republicans and third parties alike turning 
to bulk e-mail in numbers that are still small but steadily increasing. 
Two percent of all spam is political, according to statistics compiled 
by antispam vendor Brightmail.

Since Jan. 1, a federal law has regulated spam. But if you look at the 
law's fine print, you'll find a telling exemption: Our elected 
representatives made sure the restrictions don't apply to them. As a 
result, the Can-Spam Act covers only e-mail promoting "a commercial 
product or service," which lets political spammers off the hook.

[...remainder snipped...]

Posted by Declan McCullagh on May 18, 2004

Get a Politech feed through RSS or Atom

The Politech general information pages and photographs are copyrighted by Declan McCullagh. Original posts distributed to the mailing list are licensed under a Creative Commons License.