"It is a story of pure unadulterated hustle. And I love it." - Fred Wilson talking about the AirBNB team's Obama cereal hustle.
I'd like to borrow his words in regard to this post.
Fred's original post - http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/03/airbnb.html
I'd like to borrow his words in regard to this post.
Fred's original post - http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/03/airbnb.html
I think Fred Wilson's quote is referencing entrepreneurs who 'hustle' and try very hard/use alot of energy in the sports analogy --- and NOT entrepreneurs who are 'hustlers' and use shady means to fulfill their needs.
The spam is the opposite of all that. The spam destroyed a wonderful founding story. The spam destroyed their professional and ethical credibility.
Are you saying it's a violation of the CAN-SPAM act? Or something else?
You might consider AirBnB's actions unethical, but they certainly aren't illegal - which would be obvious to anyone who bothered reading the CAN-SPAM wikipedia page. It's not illegal to violate Craigslist's TOS, and AFAICT the "spam" messages were sent from a legitimate Gmail account.
For those of you claiming "I'd rather be poor than violate craigslist's terms of service": Bullshit.
They most certainly are illegal. They are unsolicited advertising (which is fine under CAN-SPAM, sadly), and contain none of the requirements of CAN-SPAM - a legitimate business address, and a clear unsubscribe link.
Just because they come from gmail accounts does not exempt AirBnB from the law.
A state law cannot pre-empt a federal law; when a federal law and a state law are in conflict, the federal law takes precedence over the state law. (U.S. Constitution, Article VI, Clause 2.) Notably, the CAN-SPAM Act expressly pre-empts any state law that "expressly regulates the use of electronic mail to send commercial messages, except to the extent that any such statute, regulation, or rule prohibits falsity or deception in any portion of a commercial electronic mail message or information attached thereto" (15 USC 7707). (So, a CA law against fraudulent email would survive pre-emption by CAN-SPAM, but a CA law against simple bulk spamming would be pre-empted by the federal law.)
Pre-empts it. www.DanHatesSpam.com