California is one of the few states that have an anti-spam law that’s used to beat spammers over the head in court. Note that the law can be used against spammers who are not based in California but are sending spam to people who live in California.
Here’s an intriguing new twist on how the law is being used.
A California state appellate court recently upheld a judgment against a spammer that in essence considered emails to be spam because (1) the sender wasn’t identified in the “From” line or elsewhere in the email; and (2) you couldn’t look up who the sender was by the domain name used to send it because of private/proxy domain name registrations. There’s a link to a complimentary copy of the court’s decision (PDF file) at the bottom of this blog post.
You may want to consider whether the emails you send provide information to identify who you are (hint – From “Marketing Guru” isn’t identification) and whether the recipients of your emails can use WHOIS to look you up via your domain name.
Not going to advise you on California law. If you need to speak with a California Internet litigator about the state’s spam laws, use the contact form on this blog and I’ll have my assistant get you the information.
internet law – california spam
