ArchiveFebruary 2009

February 27, 2009

Not all email is created equal

By laura

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27February

I have been dealing with a client delivery issue at a major ISP recently. During the course of troubleshooting my client tested mail delivery using a personal email account. This client noticed that email was delivered promptly. He then asked me if it was possible to get the ISP to prioritize his bulk mail over personal email. The short answer is no, ISPs do prioritize one-to-one email over bulk...

February 26, 2009

Link Roundup

By laura

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26February

Why email marketers are hated. A group of Ontario spammers finds Ken Magill’s email address and spams him. Repeatedly. New docs in e360 v. Spamhaus. The judge threw out the after-the-fact affidavit from e360, but did not grant Spamhaus’ motion for summary judgment. Looks like this might end up at trial after all. Oral arguments in Zango v. Kaspersky. I have been following this a...

February 25, 2009

MAAWG Senders

By laura

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25February

Last week at MAAWG a number of members asked me about signing up for the MAAWG senders’ list. I have instructions for how to do so. If you would like a copy, email me at laura-maawg at wordtothewise dotcom.
Note: ONLY MAAWG members are eligible for any of the discussion lists or working groups.

February 24, 2009

Jon Leibowitz: New FTC chair

By laura

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24February

Jon Leibowitz is slated to be appointed the new chair of the FTC as reported by Bloomberg and CNet. This may mean tougher regulations online. In the past Mr. Leibowitz has advocated that online advertisers move to opt-in for website cookies. This may signal his intention to put more control in the hands of the consumer. According to Bloomberg, Mr. Leibowitz has also “advocated more...

February 23, 2009

Soft bounces and rate limiting

By laura

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23February

What is your policy for handling soft bounces? What do you consider a soft bounce? What is the right thing to do about soft bounces? The first step in talking about soft bounces is to define them. When I talk about soft bounces, I mean mail that has been rejected with a 4xx response during the SMTP transaction. As described by RFC5321, when a recipient MTA responds with a 4xx it is telling the...

February 20, 2009

Brand name spam

By laura

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20February

I’ve been getting a lot more spam advertising name brand companies. Places like FTD Flowers, Seattle Coffee Direct, Wal-Mart, Jet Blue, Gevalia and VistaPrint seem to all be working with spammers. In some cases, I am getting the same email to different email addresses from different domains and different IP addresses. I am sure, if asked, all the advertised companies would say they have no...

February 19, 2009

Words of wisdom from the hallway

By laura

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19February

Sitting around talking with folks in the hallway. One ISP rep mentions “we think we have found another front company of theirs…” My only comment was “If a company needs to create a front company…” We all just looked at each other and didn’t need to come up with the “then…” Really, if a sender thinks they must establish front companies to...

February 18, 2009

Palpable ennui

By laura

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18February

Put any group of senders together and the conversation invariably turns to discussions of how to get email delivered to the Inbox. There is an underlying flavor to most of these conversations that is quite sad. Many senders seem to believe that the delivery of their email is outside of their control and that since the ISPs are difficult to reach that senders are stuck. The ennui is palpable. I am...

February 17, 2009

Affiliate Liability

By laura

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17February

Eric Goldman published his notes on affiliate liability from his talk at SMX West. He mentions some cases where a company was sued under CAN SPAM. Unlike general legal statutes, where non-agents cannot create liability for a company, under CAN SPAM companies are liable for the actions of their advertisers. Despite this statutory difference, both the FTC and private litigants have had difficulty...

February 16, 2009

Gearing up for MAAWG

By laura

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16February

One of the nice bits of SF MAAWG is that I don’t actually have to get on a plane in order to get to the conference. Still there seems to be a very long list of “things to do” before heading up to the city.
If you’re going to be there, stop by and say Hi