| The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) |
| The DMA filed last minute law suits to try and prevent Federal do-not-call lists that would stop telemarketers from continuing their rampant abuse of our telephones and privacy. Why should things be any different for email? The DMA has done everything in its power to prevent progress toward stopping the flood of spam that is inundanting our inboxes, and everything in its power, including flooding Congress with contributions, to make unsolicited bulk email legal. This page documents reports and examples of their actions on this issue. |
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Direct Marketing News. April 19th, 2004. Increasing revenue helped cut the Direct Marketing Association’s deficit, but it nevertheless operated at a loss in fiscal 2002-03 for the third year in a row, according to its most recent tax return obtained by DM News. The $1.49 million operating loss reported in the tax return for the July 1, 2002-June 30, 2003, period was evidence that the DMA was coming out of its economic slump but still smarting from the dot-com collapse that tore down so many of its members. DMA Cuts Deficits, but Continues to Struggle |
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Guardian Unlimited. April 8, 2004. Jon Praed of the Internet Law Group stares deep into his audience, crammed into a room in a hotel on the edge of San Francisco International Airport. He leans forward and makes an open threat. If you are a spammer, he says, you will be hunted down, and you will be caught. There have been meetings between the sides before. Notoriously, in 1999, the US's Direct Marketing Association met ISPs, anti-spam activists and software companies such as Microsoft. The DMA seemed to take their concerns to heart but, within a year, was actively praising the virtues of spam, and lobbying against the first anti-spam laws. Since that meeting, viewed as a betrayal by many anti-spammers, progress has been glacial. America remains the global number one source of spam. Incredible bulk. Danny O'Brien mingles among the arch-spammers and explains the new ways to track down serial offenders |
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mediapost.com. January 21, 2004. The Direct Marketing Association has released "The CAN SPAM Act of 2003: What to Look For, What to Look OUT For," a quick reference guide to the new federal anti-spam law. The guide gives examples of commercial emails that comply with the law and provides contact information for the government authorities in charge of enforcement. DMA Releases CAN SPAM Guide |
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dmnews.com. April 2, 2004. The proposed federal do-not-e-mail registry would cost the commercial e-mail industry as much as $5.8 billion, according to a study released March 31 by the Direct Marketing Association. The cost estimates were included in comments the DMA submitted to the Federal Trade Commission, which in March requested comment on the do-not-e-mail registry proposed as part of the CAN-SPAM Act. The FTC must submit a plan to Congress for its implementation, along with potential drawbacks and costs, by June 16. DMA: Do-Not-E-Mail Registry Would Cost Industry $5.8B [Ed. Note: Wait a minute. Isn't there something familiar about outrageous claims like this? Oh, yes, now I remember. The Federally mandated "Do Not Call" list. Wasn't that supposed to bring western civilization to an end, also? DMA. What can I say. Just mind you a personal opinion, but I think the DMA represents the scummiest element in our society, mindless, unethical, sleazy marketing at its worst. Just an personal opinion, mind you.] |
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Direct Marketing Association Continues Redefining Meanings to Suit Them. Doublespeak Alive and Well at the DMA. From wired.com. March 1, 2004. The Direct Marketing Association released new guidelines that officially endorse a controversial practice that allows businesses to track down customers' e-mail addresses without explicitly asking for them. The guidelines cover "e-mail appending," or "e-pending," whereby companies append e-mail addresses to conventional customer records. The addresses are often purchased from third-party data-collection agencies and matched to other information, like purchase records. Companies argue that since the customers established a relationship with them through purchases, they have a right to build on that relationship by marketing to them through e-mail. But critics say the practice is akin to tracking down a customer's phone number and address after a single purchase -- a justification that would rile most people. Members of the DMA reiterated that argument last week and defended the guidelines as a sign that its member companies are taking steps to increase consumer privacy and reduce spam. Buy Offline, Get Spammed Online [Ed. Note: Comparing the DMA to bottom dwelling scum is an insult to flora of the world, even the most humble. The added emphasis on the third paragraph is mine. It gives renewed meaning to George Orwell's contribution of the word "Doublespeak" to the English vocabulary in his book, 1984. Just so we are clear on this: the DMA has approved guidelines allowing companies to make up and guess their customers email addresses so they can spam them. In order to reduce spam and not intrude on the privacy of their email addresses, which they concealed from the company. OK. I think I got that straight.] |
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Column: Ahhh, So That’s What Spam Is! [The following quotes an article at www.dmnews.com, online direct marketing site.] From "DMNews, The Online Newspaper of Record for Direct Marketers" July 21, 2003, By: Ken Magill, iMarketing News Editor, ken@dmnews.com Quoting from the article's lead paragraphs (Copyright 2001 Courtenay Communications Corporation): No national consensus exists on a definition of spam. But with some picayune exceptions, usually offered by dweebs with too much time on their hands, most participants in the national spam debate generally define it as unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail, the bulk and commercial parts being up for grabs in some circles. Then along comes a definition from planet DMA. “Spam is essentially e-mail that misrepresents an offer or misrepresents the originator, or in some way attempts to confuse or defraud people,” DMA president/CEO H. Robert Wientzen said in an appearance on a July 13 spam segment on “CBS Sunday Morning.” “The reality is that, in spite of all the trouble that e-mail is causing, Americans and people all over the world ... do respond to e-mail offers, and they often respond to offers for things they didn’t even know existed, from people they didn’t know existed.” [ . . . ] But for Wientzen to pop up like a jack-in-the-box in a debate that’s been taking place for years and say with a straight face that spam is only fraudulent e-mail tells everyone that the DMA refuses to have an honest discussion and is not to be taken seriously in this matter. Read the entire column: Column: Ahhh, So That’s What Spam Is! More Information: CAUCE Press Release: DMA Meets with Anti_Spam Leaders in 1998 DMA to Internet: SHUT UP AND EAT YOUR SPAM DMA Deleted Spam Definition From Best Practices |
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The following press release is archived on http://groups.google.com. Click link below: DMA & antispam activists meet to find consensus Within a few months after this "good faith" meeting, the DMA tried to start a global email address "do-not email" directory. It was a resounding flop. Everyone ignored it. Spammers, of course, ignored it. Spammees, of course, spit in its general direction. |
From: John C. Mozena (moz@cyberNOTHING.org)
Subject: DMA & antispam activists meet to find consensus
View: Complete Thread (14 articles)
Original Format
Newsgroups: comp.org.cauce, news.admin.net-abuse.email
Date: 1998/12/07
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ANTI-SPAM ADVOCATES AND DIRECT MARKETING
ASSOCIATION MEET TO IDENTIFY CONSENSUS
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR E-MAIL MARKETING
WASHINGTON, DC--December 7, 1998--Representatives from the Internet
anti-spam community met on Friday with the leadership of The Direct
Marketing Association (DMA) today to identify consensus
recommendations for e-mail marketing on the Internet.
The meeting, which took place at The DMA's headquarters in Washington,
DC, was convened to identify areas of agreement regarding unsolicited
e-mail advertisements ("spam") and ways the group could work together
to reduce abuse of the Internet by senders of unsolicited, bulk
e-mail.
In a five-hour meeting, the marketers and anti-spam activists present
agreed to:
* Support legislation which, at a minimum, prohibits false
identification in commercial e-mail;
* Acknowledge opt-in as the most successful targeting method for
online marketers; (By "opt-in," the group agreed on the definition,
"the recipient has stated and not rescinded his or her desire to
receive the type of mail which you are sending.")
* Work to create a non-profit global opt-out list, supported by
marketers and free to consumers, which allows both business entities
and individuals to perform a one-time global opt-out from unsolicited
commercial bulk e-mail;
DMA President Robert Wientzen was encouraged with the outcome of the
meeting, which he said was a natural outgrowth of longstanding DMA
policy and ethical business practice guidelines.
"We have long seen the efficacy of opt in programs and are encouraged
by their adoption by many marketers," Wientzen said. "Furthermore, we
continue to believe that legislation should not prohibit otherwise
legal and non-abusive communication."
Internet industry attendee John Levine, best-selling author of
"Internet for Dummies" and a board member of the Coalition Against
Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (CAUCE), is pleased to have a working
partnership between the marketing community and anti-spam advocates of
the Internet community.
"While we can't commit all Internet professionals to this
understanding, and the DMA cant commit all e-mail marketers, this is a
consensus agreement that these three steps will serve as a rallying
point for the preservation of ethical e-mail marketing," Levine said.
Other meetings are planned to move the consensus recommendations
forward.
Conference attendees from the Internet community included:
* A.B. Rosenthal; head of RCN, Inc.s Abuse Department
* Ray Everett-Church, Esq.; co-founder and counsel of the Coalition
Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (CAUCE) and attorney with the
Washington, DC-based technology law firm of Haley, Bader & Potts
* Rodney Joffe; chairman of Phoenix, AZ-based American Computer Group
and the proprietor of the SAFEeps e-mail preference service
* John Levine; author of the best-selling "Internet for Dummies" and
a CAUCE board member
* Chris Lewis; senior network security analyst for Ontario,
Canada-based Nortel Networks
* John Mozena; head of the information technology practice at
Farmington Hills, MI-based Marx Layne & Company Marketing and Public
Relations and a CAUCE co-founder and board member
* Nick Nicholas; Regional Policy Manager for San Francisco, CA-based
SBC Communications
* Richard Purcell; customer information manager for Microsoft
Corporations Customer Systems Group, responsible for customer
information collection and use for microsoft.com, the corporations
marketing database and internal customer-engagement systems
* Paul Vixie; founder of the Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS) and
of the MAPS Realtime Blackhole List (RBL), main author of BIND, the
Internets premier DNS server implementation,
internationally-recognized speaker on Internet topics and co-author of
"Sendmail: Theory and Practice."
DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION
The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) is the largest trade
association for businesses interested in database and interactive
marketing, with nearly 4,400 member companies from the United States
and 49 other nations.
Founded in 1917, its members include direct marketers from every
business segment as well as the non-profit and electronic marketing
sectors. Included are online marketers, catalogers, financial
services, book and magazine publishers, book and music clubs, internet
service providers, retail stores, industrial manufacturers and a host
of other vertical segments including the service industries that
support them. According to a DMA-commissioned study conducted by The
WEFA Group, direct marketing sales in the United States exceeded $1.2
trillion in 1997. Approximately $685 billion in direct marketing
purchases were made by consumers; and $542 billion by businesses. The
DMA Web Site is www.the-dma.org.
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The following remarks about the DMA were posted to
news.admin.net-abuse.email by Steve Linford of http://spamhaus.org .
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