Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble are feeling the heat from a couple of Net-abuse watchdogs who launched campaigns to prevent both online booksellers from spamming. The companies have both responded by promising policy reviews.
Ron Schwarz, co-author of Using VBScript, posted a message 3 August on his book's page at Amazon.com which read: "Although I would like you to buy my book, I cannot in good conscience ask you to buy it here, because Amazon has recently began using Unsolicited Commercial Email (AKA 'Spam') to advertise." (This message, and dozens of other messages in support of Schwarz's position, were later removed by Amazon.)
Schwarz says he posted his message when he received an unsolicited commercial email from Amazon after he signed up for Amazon's "Eyes" feature, which alerts a subscriber by email when a new book that matches the subscriber's criteria becomes available. "But," say Schwarz, "that was the only thing I signed up for. I didn't give them permission to send advertising."
Mark Welch, who runs Abadago's Mystery Page, devoted to mystery genre fiction, ran a banner ad campaign which started 5 August against Barnes & Noble after he received an unsolicited commercial message from the bookseller.
While Welch welcomes email from mystery-book sellers who ask him to link to their publishing company or bookstore, "there's a broad fuzzy line between what is spam and what is personal communication, and in this case I think Barnes & Noble is not even in the gray zone. They've gone past it and are in the pure spam zone."
After trying to contact Barnes & Noble with no success, Welch then purchased 40,000 banner ad impressions with Flycast, which ran his anti-B&N advertisement across a broad range of sites. The ad read: "Boycott BARNES AND NOBLE! Boycott Junk Email Spammers! Don't Tolerate Unsolicited Commercial Email!" The banner was linked to a page titled "Boycott Barnes and Noble!," which includes the text of the email the bookseller sent to Welch.
In both cases, the problem stems from the companies' decision to use "opt-out" rather than "opt-in" marketing methods, explains Schwarz. "If every business on the face of the earth did that, we wouldn't be able to use our mailboxes any longer. If Amazon.com establishes the propriety of legitimate businesses spamming, then all hell breaks loose. So it has to be nipped in the bud."
Schwarz and Welch's nipping seems to have worked. Their campaigns have prompted the companies to review their policies. Amazon is now sending a message to people complaining about spam, announcing that they "are in the process of adding ways for people to remove themselves from our news list before we send them the first news mailing."
A spokesperson says B&N is "taking a closer look at its membership agreement, due to Mark's Web site ... looking at where can it improve so that customers don't feel that they are victims of some sort of spam."
Welch says he's pleased his campaign has caused B&N to change its email policy. He has canceled his ad campaign, and says he will resume it only if the company's new policy is unacceptable.
