TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Florida Attorney General: My Email is Not Spam!

Florida Attorney General: My Email is Not Spam!

Reuters News Wire (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Sat, 24 Dec 2005 14:41:08 -0600

Florida's attorney general has spearheaded an aggressive campaign
against unsolicited e-mails, or spam. But as a candidate for governor,
he appears to be generating some unwanted Internet clutter himself.

Charlie Crist was a staunch defender of a tough anti-spam law passed
by the state legislature last year, under which violators can be fined
up to $500 for every e-mail they send.

But a report in Thursday's St. Petersburg Times said Crist, a
Republican gubernatorial candidate, had annoyed some residents of the
state by sending them unwanted e-mails promoting his candidacy and
soliciting campaign donations.

Joe Spooner, a 41-year-old investment adviser, told the newspaper he
had no idea how the Crist campaign got his e-mail address but
repeatedly tried to unsubscribe.

After his fifth request to be removed, Spooner sent the Crist campaign
an e-mail of his own. He accused Crist of hypocrisy because of the way
he seemed to have forgotten all about his vocal crackdown on spammers.

'Do I need to file a complaint with the attorney general's office?"
Spooner wrote.

The newspaper quoted other people who had received unsolicited e-mails
from Crist's campaign.

Crist was not immediately available for comment. But Vivian Myrtetus,
a spokeswoman for his gubernatorial campaign, denied that he was
somehow holding himself to different standards than other e-mailers.

"This is not spam. This is truthful, it's straight forward. We're
honest. To be spam it has to be, under Florida law, defined as being
deceptive," Myrtetus.

"The attorney general does not consider this spam and is, as you know,
at the forefront of protecting citizens against that."

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

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