[SpamCop-List] Re: Corel and "spam"

[Mike Easter]

Robi wrote:
> ok, not really spam, but a very "obscure" unsubscribe statement:

well, it certainly doesn't make much sense on the face of it

> <quote>
> About this e-mail
> You are receiving this e-mail because you registered to download
> CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 12 from the Corel website.
>
> If you would like to receive further communications from Corel,
> click the "unsubscribe" button at the bottom of this email to
> adjust and Save your privacy settings.
> </quote>
>
> They say I registered to download... not that I downloaded :)
>
> I downloaded it a month ago to test and discarded it...
> this arrived today :)
>
> <<If you would like to receive further communications from Corel,
> click the "unsubscribe" button>>

That's a jumble.  Presumably you had to give them some kind of email
addy to do the download.  Some people give a bogus addy if all the
system wants is an addy to do the deal -- other times you have to give a
good addy to get the deal.

> Ok, I don't want to receive further comms... so I won't click...
> Lets see what happens :)

Sometimes 'we' [tinw] 'anti-/s' act up about these kinds of things;
trying to play a 'gotcha' game.  You can 'perform' in some kind of
'difficult' manner, and ultimately get mail that you don't want.

If you put that situation together with the 'standard' spamcop model, in
which the reporting process munges your addy, you've created an
unfortunate and unnecessary 'catch-22'

If you are going to report unmunged from the spammed addy and you want
to play the gotcha game, that's one thing [also probably 'petty'] - but
if you are going to spamcop report munged and try to get the Corel
listed because they fell into your trap of 'strict' rules about opting
in - then I think you are gaming the system.  The idea isn't to see if
you can cause someone to fall into some kind of trap which represents
suboptimal list management and optin practices, but to 'work together'
to avoid the problem of unsolicited mail.

They did something for you.  They provided you with some software to
look at.  Now, you should do something for them.  You should cooperate
to the degree that you are 'further' telling them that you don't want
their mail -- not trying to trap them into sending you something you
don't want -- and then 'hiding' behind spamcop while you report them for
doing it anonymously or munged.

-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin