[I thank Kate for replying on behalf of TRAC. It seems that Kate's comments parse the topic narrowly: People may have told they were added to an email list against their will and without permission, but no email was sent out. AP says they stand by their story. Let this be a lesson: If you're going to campaign against spamhausen, make sure your own house is in order first! Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03946.html --Declan] --- Date: Wed, 04 Sep 2002 15:13:54 -0400 From: Kate Dean <kdeanat_private> To: declanat_private Subject: Re: FC: More on groups ask FTC to can spam through new regulations Declan - No one has accused TRAC of sending Spam! You calling the anti-spammers "a bit spammy" wherein there has been no reports of TRAC sending spam is misleading and inaccurate. The TRAC site did indeed for a short period of time state "You are currently signed up for news and information." - but that statement was inaccurate and was just a template response that was generated when a person's story was submitted (standard language from a script that was copied). Only your editorializing in your comments and Ian's editorializing in his comments accuse TRAC of spamming. There are no reports that were brought to Ian's attention of anyone getting spam. Thank you for your earlier story and for drawing attention to the relatively obscure First Amendment issues that are in fact the real issues. Kate Dean -- Kate Dean Issue Dynamics, Inc. Staff Associate 919 18th Street, NW 10th Floor Washington, DC 20006 202.263.2923 --- From: "Meeks, Brock (MSNBCi)" <Brock.Meeksat_private> To: "'Declanat_private'" <Declanat_private> Subject: FW: NEWS - AP Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2002 12:26:55 -0700 FYI =-=-=-=-= ASSOCIATED PRESS "SPAM" EMAIL STORY IS WRONG, CONSUMER GROUP WARNS Correction Now Being Sought About Inaccurate Report on Anti-Spam Initiative WASHINGTON, D.C. -- September 4, 2002 -- The nonprofit membership organization Telecommunications Research and Action Center (TRAC) cautioned news organizations today that a Washington, D.C. datelined story from the Associated Press about spam e-mail is "simply dead wrong" in suggesting that TRAC is engaging in the use of spam email in its campaign opposed to unsolicited junk email. TRAC has contacted the AP in Washington to seek a correction to the story and indicated that it will do the same in connection with any other news organization that runs the factually inaccurate story. "It is 100 percent erroneous to suggest that TRAC, the National Consumers League or Consumer Action are sending spam email to consumers who go to www.banthespam.com to tell their junk email horror stories" said TRAC Chairman Samuel A. Simon. "No spam email of any kind was sent to any consumer. Not a single person. What the AP has done is concoct an inaccurate story about some language that appeared on the anti-spam Web site. I want to emphasize that the Web site did not generate any spam and, in fact, it was never capable of doing so. The AP story is simply dead wrong." Earlier today, TRAC, NCL and Consumer Action announced that they are formally petitioning the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to use its powers to dramatically reduce the unsolicited bulk commercial email popularly known as "spam." The three nonprofit consumer groups also announced the related launch of a nonprofit Web site, <http://www.banthespam.com>http://www.banthespam.com, designed to empower consumers by giving them the ability to express their anger and frustration about abusive spam email. At the Web site, consumers can let the FTC know of their support for the anti-spam email petition by reporting spam "horror stories." CONTACT: Kate Dean, Telecommunications Research and Action Center, 202/263-2932. --- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 CNET Radio 9:40 am ET weekdays: http://cnet.com/broadband/0-7227152.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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