Can They Make Life for Marketers Any More Complicated?

Yeah, it’s a rhetorical question, I know. Of course they can, and they will. And by they, I mean spammers, legislators and lawyers. And let’s not forget lawyers. Oh, and did I also mention lawyers?

Ok, so we know spammers have pretty much ruined the pristine landscape of email for legitimate marketers. Now we all play by the CAN-SPAM rules…except, of course, the same spammers that led to the legislation. And the amount of spam only continues to make life hard for legitimate email marketers.

We know legislators like good, long looks at marketing activities. They pass laws like CAN-SPAM, Sarbanes-Oxley and other laws that impact businesses and marketers. Legislation impacts how we send email and faxes, what we say in them, and who we can send them to. It impacts how we manage customer and prospect data, how we interact with customers and prospects, and what information and actions we must provide to them and when. That’s a given to only get more complicated as new media and technology emerges.

And now, we get to the headliner: lawyers. In this particular case, a group of lawyers wants to make life for marketers a whole lot more complicated. To make a long story short, if this law firm wins their suit then simple Internet links would become a permission-based process. Are you kidding me?

Can you imagine having the time to get permission before linking to another website? I recognize the importance of dealing with privacy issues and legislation that dictates how we interacte with customer information. Yet marketers (and actually bloggers too) would be potentially cursed if the ill-meaning folks at Jones Day win this suit. As the article mentions, the logic behind the argument seems to be laced with holes that would seem to indicate it won’t charge ahead and succeed. Keep your fingers crossed.

And if it does, this article will be amended to include a new category: judges.