Ilegal Merchants or not?

[Tasish]

There are these people who add you to their advertising mailer spam List without your agreement or permission.

 

It can happen when you visit bad land, stores or when you bought a bad Object from the Marketplace.

 

Is that legal or Illegal?

[Amethyst Jetaime]

It used to be the TOS specifically prohibited unsolicited spam, but the new TOS does not have that clause anymore.  Still it could be considered a form of harassment if you tell them to stop and they don't.

You probably wouldn't get much action out of LL if you AR them as they have a lot more important issues to deal with that take priority.  Your best bet is to block the person sending it to you.  If you do that you won't get notecards or messages they send personally or any spam they send out using a scripted object they own.

[Ela Talaj]

What on earth could be illegal or bad about it? This is a standard business practice. Every on-line retailer starts sending you emails as soon as you buy anything from them. For as long as the unsubscribe option exists I see nothing wrong with it..

[Freya Mokusei]

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Amethyst Jetaime wrote:

It used to be the TOS specifically prohibited unsolicited spam, but the new TOS does not have that clause anymore.  Still it could be considered a form of harassment if you tell them to stop and they don't.

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I'm sure it's been adjusted but there's still the following in ToS 6.2ii:-

 

You will not: .... Post or transmit unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, or promotional materials, that are in the nature of "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation that Linden Lab considers to be of such nature;

 

Bolding mine.

In addition, most unsolicited spam engines generate a high asset or processing load which may come under unfair use of region resources (assuming this is still an AR category). May also come under disturbing the peace, in the CS.

Sales junk and LCD selling tactics are frowned upon. ARing junkmail senders works, especially if you report the spam engine by object. Agree though that muting/blocking is a good way to get it to stop in the first instance.

 

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Ela Talaj wrote:

What on earth could be illegal or bad about it?

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Though it's not illegal (people use this word a lot in SL, not sure why), businesses are limited in the communications they can send unsolicited - especially in Europe, but increasingly in other places. Legislation such as CAN-SPAM (2003), Data Protection Act (1998) protect consumers for important reasons.

I'm unsure how each should affect SL businesses - my opinion would be that those who expect to be taken seriously as merchants should at least be aware of both, if not compliant. It's an error to assume that lack of regulation is equal to acceptable use.

[Sassy Romano]

It's downright bloody annoying to be added to a spam list merely because the shop was visited, that's what's wrong with it.

 

I don't want to have to go back later just to receive myself plus there's one merchant who was plain obstinate and refused to remove me when asked and insisted that I waste my time to visit his unsubscribe. Revisit the shop, bingo, get auto added again.

 

As far as comparison to RL shops, in the UK, it's a requirement that customers OPT IN and although plenty of merchants assume it's ok to have a small opt out check box instead, there are cases where those affected have successfully claimed damages against such auto spammers.

 

I wouldn't compare SL legality to RL though, SL has mute which is sufficient.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

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Ela Talaj wrote:

What on earth could be illegal or bad about it? This is a standard business practice. Every on-line retailer starts sending you emails as soon as you buy anything from them. For as long as the unsubscribe option exists I see nothing wrong with it..

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I get unsolicited spam and group invites from places I never stepped foot in or bought anything from. 

[Ela Talaj]

Agreed. Visiting a store is not a good reason to add to mailing list. However making a purchase is a good enough reason, at least for me.

[Ela Talaj]

I would guess there're mailing lists that are sold and bought, just like in RL. My customers list is rather large but I would not sell it to anyone.

[Stefanosje Sellers]

As I work with e-mailpolicy IRL, I can confirm this is against the law in Europe. I don't know about USA. All e-mails must be subscribed to by an opt-in + confirmation from the e-mailaddress. By any means you can take down the merchant via EU-laws. Not by TOS but by e-mailcode.

[Sassy Romano]

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Stefanosje Sellers wrote:

As I work with e-mailpolicy IRL,

I can confirm this is against the law in Europe

. I don't know about USA. All e-mails must be subscribed to by an opt-in + confirmation from the e-mailaddress. By any means you can take down the merchant via EU-laws. Not by TOS but by e-mailcode.

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Although as ever, what redress can be sought via legal routes may well end up being highly impractical and stupidly costly compared to just muting the merchant don't ya' think?

 

[Stefanosje Sellers]

Not really. The institutes that deal with these EU-laws are designed to allow easy complaint filing, considering that consumers must be helped easily in order to fight these kind of things. As simple as writing an e-mail. They'll get blacklisted from receiving servers and at some volume of complaints the institute itself will take legal route.

I'd say, file a complaint and them mute them. Help the next person out who they would've adressed next.

[Sassy Romano]

You're missing the point, this isn't email but notecards. 

First of all, nothing moves from LL's servers, second, it's not email, third, who is the complaint going to be filed against?  a game character?!

Mute the merchant...move on.

[Stefanosje Sellers]

Ahh sorry. I misinterpreted "mailing list". In that case, you're right. My mistake!