Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!gatech!rayssd!galaxia!dave
From: dave@galaxia.zone1.com (David H. Brierley)
Newsgroups: comp.org.usenix
Subject: Re: Is USENIX selling attendee lists?
Message-ID: <433@galaxia.zone1.com>
Date: 19 Mar 88 05:19:57 GMT
References: <5536@swan.ulowell.edu>
Reply-To: dave@galaxia.RAY.COM (David H. Brierley)
Distribution: na
Organization: Dave's Very Own Personal System
Lines: 31

In article <5536@swan.ulowell.edu> page@swan.ulowell.edu (Bob Page) writes:
>I recently got some marketing poop from "Information Builders Inc"
>about a product called FOCUS.
...
>So how did they get my name?  Did USENIX sell the attendee list?

I got a copy of this too, but I talked to so many people at UniForum, and I'm
already on so many mailing lists, that I just threw it away without a second
thought.  The USENIX association makes no secret of the fact that they sell
their mailing list so why shouldn't they sell the attendee list from the
conferences.  There is, however, a much simpler answer.  Most marketroids
know that a lot of the conferences provide all attendees with a list of the
other attendees so all they do is have one of their people register for the
conference so they can get the list of attendees.  Quite often it's cheaper
to register for the conference than it is to buy the mailing list.  Since
there's nothing in the list of attendess that says "you cant type a mailing
list using the names on this list", legally they have done nothing wrong.
Your only recourse is to specify that your name not be printed in the list
of attendees.  Of course, this means that someone who is looking for you at
the conference has no way of knowing if you are there or not.

If you are really bothered by the junk mail from a particular company, all
you have to do is write to them and tell them to take you off their mailing
list.  They are required to honor your wishes or else you can complain to
the Post Office.  You know, while I'm thinking of it I think I'll write to
IAPS and have them remove two of the three listings they have for my office
and also remove my home address.
-- 
David H. Brierley
Home: dave@galaxia.zone1.com   ...!rayssd!galaxia!dave
Work: dhb@rayssd.ray.com       {sun,decuac,cbosgd,gatech,necntc,ukma}!rayssd!dhb