[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" <PLEVYat_private> To: <declanat_private> 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/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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