ITs legal to use a mail list purchased on email-list.com?

I want to show my free website to a specific industry and i found that industry listed on hxxp://email-list(.)com .
They ensure that all the list all opt-in and the website looks good for what i see. Also i cant find any information saying that is not legal to use them.
Shall i buy the list and then create a mail campaign to double opt-in while showing my services?
What are your toughs? Thanks

 

This is a sticky situation and depends on who responds on the answers you get.

I don't like these lists because the people on those lists didn't sign up to your list therefore, shouldn't be getting emails from you. Nothing makes me more irritated than to get emails from people I don't sign up with i.e. other marketers, Viagra, pharmaceuticals etc... lists. Someone sold our emails out and it's just wrong and if it's not illegal, it should be. But, this is my opinion.

 

But they say:

How is the Consumer Opt-in Email List Compiled?

Email-List.com has affiliations with over 10,000 websites. Our opt-in email list is permissioned based. To validate and document our opt-in permission based email list, Email-List.com traces and provides the opt-in website source, time stamp & IP address for each record.

For what i understand when the user opt-in in those affiliates website they are accepting to receive emails from others aswell or im wrong?

Maybe we should read those website terms but i dont think email-list will provide links.

Any expert with experience on this subject?

 

In the U.S. the answer to your question, "Is it legal?" is yes.

In fact, it does not matter whether the listed people gave permission or not, the Can-Spam Act of 2003 allows you to e-mail the addys, but you must maintain an opt-out mechanism for your mailings.

Below is an article I wrote for weblaw101.com:

Email Marketing Laws – The Do’s and Don’ts of Can-Spam

Knowledge of Email marketing laws begins with the Can-Spam Act of 2003. This course will provide an email marketing do’s and don’ts for the participants.

In an effort to better inform you on the contents of the Can-Spam Act of 2003, I have written a simple synopsis of the act, sort of a Do’s and Don’ts list. Lawyers are always hesitant to create a Do’s and Don’ts list because sometimes it is not black and white, it is Gray. A good example of “gray” in the current law is the requirement to provide, “clear and conspicuous identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation”. Certainly, preceding your subject with “ADV:” would satisfy this requirement. However, putting a disclaimer in your message would also satisfy the law in an altogether different way, and one which you might rather use.

Under the act it is a felony punishable with jail terms, fines and forfeitures:
1. To use proxies or relays to send your mail,
2. To falsify your header (by definition, you are falsifying your headers if you purposely disguise the e-mail’s origin), or
3. If you falsify the registration information when buying domains or setting up e-mail accounts, or when registering for IP addresses.

The act goes on to list civil penalties unless you take the following actions to conform to the requirements of the law:

1. Your header information and registration information has to be true and correct.
2. You must have a valid from address, registered with true and correct information.
3. You cannot use a subject line that would be likely to mislead the recipient about the contents of the e-mail.
4. You must have a conspicuous opt-out mechanism which works for 30 days after the mailing is completed. (This can be at your website).
5. You must honor your opt-outs within 10 days of request.
6. Your message must have a conspicuous identification that it is an advertisement.
7. The message must contain a valid physical postal address of the sender.
8. You must not use recipient addresses that were obtained using an address harvester or by means of a dictionary attack. (Triple damages apply.)
9. You cannot use automated means to register for multiple e-mail addresses.
10. Sexually orientated material will require special marks of content.
11. Customers who know their products are being sold in violation of the act are also held to be liable.

There is really no way for an individual to sue a spammer under this act, only the State or the Feds, or an ISP that has suffered a loss. The act supersedes State internet laws, but with many exceptions.

 

Thanks a lot, its more clear now.