[kwlug-disc] KWLUG and CASL (and Mailman)

[CrankyOldBugger]

If anybody asks, we don't know any of us!



On 18 June 2014 14:57, Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com> wrote:

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> My take on this is: Messages on KWLUG don't meet the definition of a
> "Commercial Electronic Message", so there is no need to keep track of
> subscribers' consent or provide a snail-mail address.
>
> Even messages that provide information about commercial products or
> services don't necessarily meet the definition, because they're not
> "promoting" one of the proscribed activities, only providing factual
> information.  Of course, anybody who does promote their products or
> services or land deals or gaming activities makes their message a
> "Commercial Electronic Message". But then the origin is that sender,
> not the KWLUG organization, so KWLUG should still be held harmless.
>
> If KWLUG were to solicit donations, or charge membership fees, or
> charge for tickets to meetings then perhaps it might be different.
> Certainly organizations that *do* have membership fees may have
> different compliance requirements (attn: Kwartzlab folks)
>
> - --Bob, who is not a lawyer and does not offer legal advice.
>
>
> On 14-06-18 01:45 PM, Paul Nijjar wrote:
> >
> > My feeling is that the Canadian anti-spam legislation does not
> > apply to KWLUG mailing lists, but I do not know this for sure.
> >
> > Background: http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home
> >
> > Some thoughts:
> >
> > KWLUG has two mailing lists of note: kwlug-announce and
> > kwlug-disc. The only commercial solicitations on these lists that I
> > can think of are:
> >
> > - People offering to sell things on kwlug-disc - Information about
> > the FLOSS Fund
> >
> > I believe that almost everybody on kwlug-announce has consented to
> >  being on the list: - Many people signed up during our meetings -
> > Some people subscribed on their own - A few people gave verbal
> > consent to be on the list (and then we subscribed them)
> >
> > The problem is that we do not have paperwork to explicitly track
> > how people got on the list.
> >
> > A similar situation exists for kwlug-disc, except that there are
> > very few people who were signed up during meetings.
> >
> > I do not think I should be too concerned about this, but maybe I
> > should be. KWLUG does not actually exist in the eyes of the
> > government; we are not registered as a nonprofit or a business or
> > anything else. So it is not clear who gets sued/arrested if some
> > proprietary software troublemaker raises a stink about getting
> > KWLUG emails.
> >
> > One oddity about the legislation is that organizations are
> > supposed to put snailmail addresses in their messages. We don't
> > have a snailmail address, so unless a member wants to handle this I
> > do not know what to do.
> >
> > I am thinking I should probably make mention of CASL in the next
> > kwlug-announce message, but I am not that enthusiastic about
> > purging the list and starting again.
> >
> > One of the confounding factors is that Mailman sucks for complying
> >  with this legislation. As far as I know, it does not have good
> > ways to track when and how people are subscribed. Its unsubscribe
> > functionality also sucks. Thus people are going to proprietary
> > solutions like Mailchimp which rewrite all links in a message with
> >  tracking information.
> >
> > Thoughts?
> >
> > - Paul
> >
> >
> > -- http://pnijjar.freeshell.org
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________ kwlug-disc mailing
> > list kwlug-disc at kwlug.org
> > http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org
> >
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