Saw something in the Indie this morning

[Ardesco]

Spam Assassin on your mail server does a pretty good job, I only get a couple a week that haven't been picked up.

That being said if you own a domain name and you have the standard admin, abuse and postmaster addresses set up you will probably be getting a shed load of spam anyway. Secondly if you look through the logs on your average mail server you will proably find millions of refusals where spammers are sending mail to your domain with various names@<yourdomain>. I don't think it will make a huge amount of difference in the long run to be honest. I tend to see spam as an annoyance that you have to live with now.

[datestamp]

It does seem like total and utter overkill to force such detail on non-financial transactions and emails.

2006

Email or web enquiry from punter:
Hi Yourco! Do you sell truss supports?

Reply:
Sorry - not our line really !

2007

Email or web enquiry from punter:
Hi Yourco! Do you sell truss supports?

Reply:
Sorry - not our line really !

Yourco is registered in England no 1234567
VAT no: 7654321
Registered Address: 123 Qwerty Street, London, EC1 1ZZ
Telephone: 0207 111 2345
Email: wewillignorethis@happysnappywebsite.com
HappySnappyWebsite is owned by Yourco.
Yourco is not trading as anything else.
My inside leg measurement is 36 inches.
Prices on our webtulipe are exclusive of VAT. That's if we had priced anything.
Member of the CUK Forum.
This email is confidential. It should not be read by anybody who is illiterate.
If you cannot read, but have read this, please delete yourself and forget it.
All statements in this email are personal opinions, and not that of the company.
We are determined to screw the net with as much tulipe traffic as possible.
And your Government is watching you.
This is a commercial email.
This communication is a not a promotional offer nor promotional competition nor game,
It is sent on behalf of Tarquin Grunge, MD.
Further legal bull can be found at http://www.happysnappywebsite.com/legal_crap


Interestingly: http://www.out-law.com/page-431
there is mention about SMS messages also:

Text messaging
If your business uses text messaging to promote its goods and services, you are still subject to the information requirements.

SMS messages are limited to a maximum of 160 characters. So how can you comply with all the information requirements? The Department of Trade and Industry has said in its guidance notes that you can comply by making the information accessible by other means. So, at the end of a message, it will be sufficient to give the URL of a website where more information can be obtained. However, this guidance provides little comfort. The guidance notes are not binding, so could be discarded if presented to a court.

Right !! So get all that crap into 160 characters

PS have a look at a big plc - eg ICI :
http://www.ici.com/LegalNotices

Even though they indemnify themselves against spontaneous combustion of their own underpants, they still don't list this drivel (eg VAT no) as demanded in 2007. The whole thing is one big sick joke.

[ratewhore]

Read the legislation closely and note the difference between 'must' and 'should'. It ain't all that bad...

[datestamp]

Sorry - the out-law.com articles are just a guide. The actual legislation, I find rather hard to read! I agree that you have noted that the term "should" is different to "must", but I'm not sure that applies to the actual legislation.


Meanwhile, I forgot to add to the list:

Any data collected by the HappySnappyWebsite is registered under the Data Protection Act .... bla de bla bla

And there must be a few others I've forgotten about.

Meanwhile, can anybody spot this nonsense on Amazon.co.uk 's website? That's quite influential, and also sells quite a few articles.