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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.
[Paul points us to Dan Balz' column, which can be found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44609-2002Mar31.html There are two obvious issues when it comes to such a list: Acquisition and use. For the first, it seems to me that the same rules that govern in meatspace should apply here. If a Democratic campaign is careless enough to give away its list of supporters, that campaign should expect others to end up with a copy. But unsolicited email is arguably more intrusive than unsolicited U.S. mail (though far less intrusive than an unsolicited telephone call), so a prudent campaign manager may wish to think twice before using it. In any case, it seems clear that what may not be prudent here should nevertheless be legal. --Declan] --- Date: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 10:19:16 -0500 From: "Paul Levy" <PLEVY@citizen.org> To: <declan@well.com> Subject: Is it SPAM? Is it wrong? I am curious about your take - - and about the take of the folks who went after the California primary candidate who used UBE to raise contributions - - on the report in today's Washington Post about Florida governor Jeb Bush's having sent an email to a list of 800 supporters of Democratic party gubernatorial candidate McBride (it seems McBride messed up by failing to hide the email addresses of the recipients of a campaign newsletter). Is this improper spam? Or is this protected political speech to a list of persons who have indicated that they are interested in political affairs in the state of Florida (albeit in a different political party)? The story is on page A4 of the print edition (Dan Balz' Politics column), but I have not been able to find it online Paul Alan Levy Public Citizen Litigation Group 1600 - 20th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 588-1000 http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Politech dinner in SF on 4/16: http://www.politechbot.com/events/cfp2002/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------