[LINK] I did my duty - and reported spam

[sylvano]

On Tuesday 24 July 2007 13:49, Adam Todd wrote:

<snip>

> Except Political parties are exempt from the SPAM ACT :)

Well, I agree in so far that the Act does point to the "Implied freedom of 
political communication."

But I think it is also a little more accurate to say that the Act doesn't 
"exempt Political Parties," since it does describe how particular kinds of 
messages from a political party (and certain other bodies) that speak of 
goods and services that the party is itself offering may qualify as a 
"designated commercial message" and so is exempt from the section that says 
you cannot send unsolicited electronic messages.

> So you over reacted and didn't understand the law, and hence, like
> many people have no caused the ACMA to do what they will do more and
> more now - ignore the thousands of reports that come in each day
> because it's too hard and costly to try and find the legitimate 5 in
> the 1000's that aren't.
>

Interesting.  I have no knowledge of how the ACMA may or may not act in 
response to what may or may not be the thousands of dud reports coming from 
bozos such as me, but I don't think I over reacted in making a report (even 
if the basis for my report was wrong).  Though, it is exactly for the fact 
that I or others may not have a full grasp of the law that making a report to 
a government body to assess is reasonable.

<snip>

> It's not a commercial e-mail.  It doesn't purport to sell you a
> product that is marketed to the consumer.

Firstly, consider the words in the footer of the offending email:

"The Citizens Electoral Council is a registered political party and this 
message is a designated commercial electronic message as defined under 
Schedule 1 of the Spam Act 2003"

That's their words.

[INTERESTING NOTE: But, at the Australian Electoral Commission, I see they 
were deregistered as a political party at the end of 2006...  Clearly another 
legal story there.... ]

Secondly, since their email is presented in a manner (and described by them as 
a commercial email), and points to their website that has an online store 
selling product,  I have reasonable grounds to view it as a message where at 
least one of their purposes is to sell product.  And this is in the Act as a 
part of the basis for assessing if a message is a commercial one or not.

>
> Do they want you to pay them money and do they offer to give you
> something in return?
>
> No.

See above.  But simply they do wish me to read their stuff, watch videos, buy 
product from their online store and join their mailing list.

Also, while the ACMA advises me it nigh impossible to prove harvesting 
activities,  this must be something they do given that I received the 
not-Spam to a number of my email addresses.

Thank you for the robust response.  I have learned a little more in the 
process.

-- 
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