Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 18:16:42 -0500 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org, chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [OT] Spam from Windriver - how should I react? Message-ID: <15155.53722.908690.505545@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <78189409@toto.iv>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
[Moved from -questions to -chat.] Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com> types: > First off, the message technically falls into the UBE category, since I > never opted-in to receive general messages from Windriver, or > FreeBSDMall (which is what the message is about). UBE? Not UCE? In any case, it looks like they were sending it to their customers: people they have a previous relationship with. Most of the anti-direct-marketing laws I'm familiar with provide that loophole. Just because you get email sent to a list of people that you didn't opt to be on doesn't mean you got spammed. Even if it's business mail. Sure, it's a form letter. But it was sent to an existing customer - didn't it have your proper name on it, not just an email address? The reply address works. It went direct from a machine owned by Wind River - a bsdi machine - to my mail hub. It's target at people who are - or were - interested in FreeBSD. None of the things that characterize spam are there, except that you didn't ask for it, and it's from a business. It's the same kind of thing as an uncle of mine who added me to his alias to forward jokes the first time he's seen them - never mind I saw most of them when they were posted to rec.humor.funny in the '80s. Since I like him, I tend to just delete them. For businesses - and almost everyone who does business on the web does this kind of thing - I add a filter to my .qmail file so they get bounces. For spam, I complain about it. Always. > Secondly, the return address is "FreeBSDCustomerRelations@windriver.com" > which seems a little odd to me. Since when is Windriver in charge of > FreeBSD Customer Relations? Technically, are they anything other than > another supporter of the project? I think that technically, you've got it. On the other hand, they now sell - well, they own a company that sells - a product that's called FreeBSD. Having a maildrop for dealing with customers of that product isn't unreasonable. It's sort of like if Corel had a linuxcustomerrelations@corel.com, for dealing with the linux distribution they sell and/or give away. > The email then goes on to say "Wind River picked up two software product > lines from BSDi: the proprietary BSD/OS and the open-source FreeBSD." > While the email later explains that Windriver does not (and can not) > _own_ FreeBSD, the intial sentence seems rather ominous. There statement is true. Walnut Creek initiated a software product line around FreeBSD: subscriptions, 4-disk releases, the complete package, and the desktop package. That's all software, and it certainly looks like a product line to me. BSDi acquired that product line with Walnut Creek, and Wind River got it with BSDi. > The fact that they've attached the rest as a "rider" is what I'm > objecting to, I suppose. That's no worse than Walnut Creek - and then BSDi - throwing catalogs in with every thing I order from them. I even wind up paying shipping with all of it. It sure beats what happened with 4.2, when some unknown percentage of people didn't get theirs, and didn't get any notification unless they called to ask about it. > Maybe I'm over-reacting a lot with regard to this subject, but it sure > looks like Windriver has compromised FreeBSDMall's contact information > to spam me, and hidden a brief FreeBSDMall message inside the spam to > make it seem legitimate. I think you're over-reacting. From the evidence I have, FreeBSDMall is now owned by Wind River. Since they own the contact list, they can't really compromise it. This company that was distributing FreeBSD distributions is under new management. That generally means new practices, some of which you may not like. If that's the case, try sending a polite request in reply to the mail asking that they take you off whatever list they're using. If they refuse, then it's time to get upset. If they make a habit of this - doing it more than once a year or so - I'll probably ask that they take me off the list as well. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?15155.53722.908690.505545>