[Politech] Weekly column: Political spam, the new national pastime? [sp]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Mon May 17 2004 - 21:02:51 PDT

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    Political spam as national pastime
    May 17, 2004, 4:00 AM PT
    By Declan McCullagh
    
    Aaron Russo wants your vote so badly, he's willing to spam you for it.
    
    Last week, Russo, a Hollywood producer who is running for president as a 
    Libertarian Party candidate, fired off thousands of unsolicited e-mail 
    messages announcing his campaign and asking recipients to "help support 
    Russo financially" with "automatic monthly contributions."
    
    Russo, whose films include "The Rose" and "Trading Places," is not 
    alone. Political spam has become a thoroughly nonpartisan communications 
    technique, with Democrats, Republicans and third parties alike turning 
    to bulk e-mail in numbers that are still small but steadily increasing. 
    Two percent of all spam is political, according to statistics compiled 
    by antispam vendor Brightmail.
    
    Since Jan. 1, a federal law has regulated spam. But if you look at the 
    law's fine print, you'll find a telling exemption: Our elected 
    representatives made sure the restrictions don't apply to them. As a 
    result, the Can-Spam Act covers only e-mail promoting "a commercial 
    product or service," which lets political spammers off the hook.
    
    [...remainder snipped...]
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