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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.
http://news.com.com/2010-1071-981258.html Perspective: Hail to the...spammer-in-chief? By Declan McCullagh January 20, 2003, 4:00 AM PT WASHINGTON--Sen. Joseph Lieberman hopes to become the first Democratic president from Connecticut, the first Jewish president, and the first senator to win the White House since John F. Kennedy. Good for him. Our problem is that Lieberman also is itching to be our spammer-in-chief. It's no joke. Within hours of announcing his plans to seek the Democratic nomination for the job last week, Lieberman started spamming around a message titled: "Beginning an Amazing Journey." It said: "I have the strength, vision, and values to lead our nation to higher ground." To broadcast this momentous news, Lieberman used an outfit called Roving Software of Waltham, Mass., which sells a bulk-mail service called ConstantContact. Bulk mailers pay from $10 to about $2,000 a month for the service. Roving claims to occupy a market niche reminiscent of the dot-com boom, describing itself as a "pre-IPO, venture-backed" start-up boasting revenue growth of "more than 40 percent per quarter in 2002." There's a lot of bulk e-mail, which Roving says is not spam but "permission-based marketing." Roving does require ConstantContact users to let e-mail recipients "remove themselves from your mailing list," but its terms of service agreement does not require that addresses on the list be confirmed "opt-in" in the first place. In other words: Roving may heed your removal request, but its customers don't need your permission to clog your in-box in the first place. [ remainder snipped, viewable at http://news.com.com/2010-1071-981258.html ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------