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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 culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
[Like other news organizations, Wired News has an address we use to receive tips from readers. I just checked, and yep, we're getting PressBlaster spew. Thanks, Robin, for sending this along. --Declan] ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2002 20:26:43 -0500 From: "Robin (Roblimo) Miller" <robin@roblimo.com> To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: for journalists who read politech... Fighting Against PressBlaster PR Spam Journalists with email addresses published on the WWW are getting hit with an increasing amount of PR spam generated by a program called "PressBlaster." You can tell a Pressblaster release because it has the following disclaimer at the bottom: "This Press Release is being sent to a handful of targeted media contacts who we felt were most appropriate to receive it. If you would like us to remove your email address from our list of occasional press releases, simply reply with the word 'remove' in the subject line. You will never again receive a press release from us." Since most publications get their correspondence through email aliases like "editors@" or "pr@," a "remove" reply from "EddieEditor@" will not result in a removal. And even if it did, it would only stop spam from one PressBlaster user, not from hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of other PressBlaster customers. PressBlaster (http://www.pressblaster.net/) is powerfully attractive to small entrepreneurs with limited promotion budgets. Buy this software, the pitch goes, and you can write your own press releases and send out thousands of copies in just a few minutes. Spend less than $200, once, and you won't need to hire an expensive PR professional, ever. One of the screenshots in their little online "tour" of the program's features shows contact information for a major TV newsmagazine show. Imagine your business featured on 20/20, this seems to imply. Wouldn't that be great? Buried in the FAQs is a reminder that you shouldn't send every press release to everyone. Specifically: "If you just opened up a new Apple Farm in Kentucky, it would not be appropriate to announce this to an entertainment editor in New York. If you properly target your announcements to a targeted media base you run a much better chance of getting mentioned in the press. Remember, PressBlaster contains over 24,000 media contacts, so if you mail your release to just 50, and if just one major newspaper or magazine picks it up, the potential audience that see's [sic] your story could be in the millions!" But on the site's main page, in large type, it says, "Now you can send out thousands of your own Press Releases in just a few minutes!" Which statement do you think is more likely to be noticed by a home-business hopeful who doesn't know much about publicity -- or the Internet? The PressBlaster home page also opens a popup window that advertises: - Submit Unlimited Ads to over 400,000 Sites with ONE click! - One Form, One Click, Your Ad on the top 250 FREE Classified Sites! - Instantly Submit your FREE Ads to over 500 Message Boards--with ONE click! - $2.00 Ads!! Place Thousands of Ads for only $2 Bucks! (Hot!) I hope Slashdot and our other OSDN sites aren't among those "500 message boards." If you run message boards, I hope, for your sake, that yours aren't included either. Note that targeting is not mentioned; apparently these programs -- which are sold by PressBlaster's publisher -- are pure, unvarnished spamware. It is no wonder many PressBlaster users believe the program *they* bought is intended to be used in a similar manner. The PressBlaster site has a form at http://www.pressblaster.net/pressmember.html where press people can supposedly remove themselves from the PressBlaster database. I used this form, but filling it out has not kept me from getting PressBlaster spam. Even if this form really works, unlike most spammers' "remove" utilities, PressBlaster is sold on CDs, so copies already distributed still contain our publications' email aliases and can still be used by PR spammers to harass us. But all is not lost. Here are two simple steps you can take to protect yourself (and others) against PressBlaster: 1) Use all or part of the "This Press Release is being sent to a handful of targeted media contacts" disclaimer to trigger your email filters and send all PressBlaster spam to its own email folder. This is easy to do in most Linux email programs, and I assume Windows and Mac users also have ways to do it. 2) When you have a moment, go to your "PressBlaster Spam" folder and forward everything in it to PressBlaster's two published email addresses, sales@pressblaster.net and pb@pressblaster.net. Include full headers. In at least one instance, PressBlasters Director Joe Bellshaw has revoked a user's license because she used the product incorrectly. Bellshaw's email to the user included the following paragraphs (recipient's name removed): "You have no right to use this tool to spam the press. "Obviously you have no clue of what a press release is, how to write one, and how to target the appropriate media contacts. "The press and media industry is not there to read your junk email. They have much more important things to do like report on newsworthy stories. Getting newsworthy stories to the appropriate media conact is what pressblaster is all about. "Your junk email is NOT newsworthy and is NOT appreciated by me or anyone else. In my 6 years of providing a quality piece of software, you have caused more grief , upset, and harm than anyone in my entire online career. "[Licensee name], I am hereby revoking your user license, effective immediately, and will be refunding your purchase price in full. You are hereby advised to remove the software immediately from your computer. Please confirm this has been done." Since all PressBlaster releases I have received have been from people who don't know "how to target the appropriate media contacts," if we all forward all PressBlaster email we get to sales@pressblaster.net and pb@pressblaster.net, perhaps Mr. Bellshaw will revoke most of his users' licenses and PressBlaster spam will stop. It's worth a try, anyway. :) - Robin "Roblimo" Miller - editor and reporter, - Slashdot - NewsForge - Linux.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Events: Congreso Nacional de Periodismo Digital in Huesca, Spain from Jan. 17-18 (http://www.congresoperiodismo.com) and the Second International Conference on Web-Management in Diplomacy in Malta from Feb. 1-3. (http://www.diplomacy.edu/Web/conference2/) -------------------------------------------------------------------------