Microsoft has been lauded here on these pages for their diligent pursuit of spammers through the legal system. And
with good cause, as they are taking down spammers left and right.
So it is with some irony that this week several sources are reporting that Microsoft's Steve Balmer is spamming people
who are not customers, have never been customers, and are not ever going to be customers. Including an active
anti-spam activist who says that he never gave Microsoft the email address at which they are now spamming
him.
And it is with even more irony that MSNBC is reporting on it. According to the report:
The letter was one of a series sent by Microsoft to the technology community as part of a worldwide campaign by Microsoft to combat the growing popularity of the Linux operating system and other open-sourcesoftware.
According to the report the email, which purportedly comes directly from Steven Ballmer, says in part "I'm writing
to you and other business decision makers and information technology professionals today to share some of the data
around these key issues, and to provide examples of customers who opted to go with the Windows platform rather than
Linux."
Of course, as also reported here, Microsoft is known
for being rabidly anti-open-source.
Microsoft's response? That "Ballmer's e-mail did not violate federal anti-spam regulations."
Not only is that not the right answer, but according to the reports there are legal experts who disagree, especially
because in order to unsubscribe from the mailings you have to jump through more hoops than anticipated by the
requirements of CAN-SPAM.
Noted legal expert David Sorkin called the email "a clear violation of CAN-SPAM".
For their part, Microsoft spokesman Sean Sundwall said the company "never, ever" uses outside lists for its mailings,
and then went on to say that he didn't know how the anti-spammer's unoffered email address ended up on their mailing
list.
"He said that database includes millions of names collected from a variety of sources, including registrations for products or Microsoft-sponsored conferences, names provided to Microsoft representatives at trade shows or requests to receive company newsletters."
Odd…he didn't mention any of them actually asking to be placed on a Microsoft mailing list.
I wonder why.
