Marketers Pitch Spam Guidelines - Continue Redefinition Effort
from the just-because-you-say-it's-true,-doesn't-mean-it-is dept
Back in July we wrote about how the Direct Marketing Association was trying to redefine spam as fraudulent email, so they could keep on bombarding people with email marketing they didn't want. The uproar over that caused them to delay the release of such guidelines that month, and again in August. Now, they've finally come out with guidelines and they are exactly as expected. Spam is considered fraudulent email, and not unsolicited bulk commercial emails or (even better) email that someone doesn't want to receive. It's clear why the DMA wants such a definition, but it's a short-sighted view. By trying to legitimize their own brand of spam, they're only going to end up pissing off everyone, and make email even less useful as a marketing tool.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team