Small Business Resource, Ltd. (“SBR”)
Anti-Spam Policy
(Last updated December 5, 2003)
SBR is committed to permission-based email marketing
practices, and as a result has established this no-tolerance Anti-Spam
Policy. SBR will occasionally update this Anti-Spam Policy. When it
does, SBR will also revise the “last update” date at the
top of this Anti-Spam Policy. For changes to this policy, SBR will
notify you (the customer) by placing a notice on its web site home
page.
1. What is Spam?
Spam is commercial email or unsolicited bulk email,
including “junk mail”, which has not been requested by
the recipient. It is intrusive and often irrelevant or offensive,
and it wastes valuable resources. Spam messages are the opposite of
permission-based email, which are normally anticipated, personal,
relevant and/or associated with a pre-existing business or personal
relationship. Inappropriate newsgroup activities, consisting of excessive
posting of the same materials to several newsgroups, are also deemed
to be spam.
2. Preventing Spam
Customers of SBR products and services have agreed
during their registration process, upon accepting the Terms of Use,
to comply with this Anti-Spam Policy. Specifically, each customer
agrees not to use the SBR products or services to send unsolicited
email or bulk email, whether or not for commercial purposes. SBR reserves
the right to determine in its sole discretion what constitutes actionable
spam, as well as what measures are necessary in response to such spam
activities.
3. How SBR Helps You
to Avoid Spamming
SBR has developed
its Internet marketing tools to incorporate a strict permission-based
philosophy. This anti-spam philosophy is implemented through the following:
(a) Communication and Agreement
– The Terms of Use that you have agreed to as part of registering
for the SBR products and services state how and for what purposes
you can collect your site visitor addresses, and that you will follow
the SBR Privacy Policy and Anti-Spam Policy.
(b)
Unsubscribe – Each email created using SBR products contains
an “unsubscribe link”. If your web site visitors use
the link to request that they be unsubscribed, your subscriber lists
will automatically be adjusted to eliminate the prospect of sending
unwanted email to such persons. Additionally, each person on your
subscriber list has the option of unsubscribing through a web-based
method provided on the SBR web site. Customers of SBR who try to
remove the unsubscribe link will be warned that they are doing so,
and if they persist in having the link removed or deactivated in
any way, then SBR will have the right to terminate their account.
(c) Purchased Mailing Lists - Mass
mailings to purchased email lists are not allowed. SBR only allows
opt-in mailing lists. Purchased or inherited lists are by definition
not opt-in. Similarly, you cannot use an email list relating to
particular subject matter, and then use it for an unrelated topic.
4. Laws Restricting Spam
Spam laws vary from state to state, and from
country to country. This SBR Anti-Spam Policy has been developed
to conform to the highest commercially reasonable standards. As
a result, and without limiting the general prohibitions against
all spam activities, the following are expressly prohibited:
(a) Use of false headers, or other
false information, to identify the point of origin or the transmission
path of the email, or to hide the true origin of the email sender,
(b) Unauthorized use of a third party’s
internet domain name without the permission of such third party,
to make it appear that the third party was the point of origin of
the email,
(c) Use of any false or misleading
information in the subject line of the email, and
(d) Assisting any person in using
the products or services of SBR for any of these previously mentioned
activities.
5. Questions to Ask Yourself
To help in establishing whether you are participating
in activities constituting spam, ask yourself the following questions:
(a) Are you sending email to non-specific
addresses, such as info@domain.com or sales@domain.com?
(b) Have you deliberately falsified
your transmission path information or originating address?
(c) Are you sending email to mailing
lists or distribution lists, which then send indirectly to various
other email addresses?
(d) Have you imported for use a purchased
list of any type?
(e) Are you continuing to mail to
anyone who has asked to be deleted from your mailing list?
(f) Does your email not provide a
fully functioning link to unsubscribe?
(g) Does you email subject line contain
false or misleading information?
(h) Have you used a third party’s
email address or domain name without the party’s consent?
If you answer yes to any of these questions, you are likely involved
in spam activities, and should contact SBR customer support service
at support@sbremailmanager.com.
6. Measures to Enforce the Anti-Spam Policy
Any SBR customer found to be using SBR products
or services for spamming purposes may, at SBR’s discretion,
be immediately cut off from use of all SBR products and services
and/or fined US$ 1,000 per occurrence, with no refund of fees that
have been paid.
SBR warns all of its customers when signing up that if they participate
in spamming activities they will be subject to the loss of SBR services,
fines and possible legal action.
SBR has the right to actively review its customers’ subscriber
lists and email for suspiciously large broadcasts. If SBR finds
any customers to be spamming, it will issue a warning, and if the
activities are serious enough, SBR will take action immediately.
If SBR has any reason to believe that the customer, despite warning
being given, threatens to or is continuing to send spam, then SBR
may take action immediately, including disabling the customer’s
account and/or reporting the customer and the incident to the proper
authorities.
SBR does not attempt to censor any content, or to curtail the business
of its customers. However, spam activities do not fall within uses
authorized by SBR, and will not be tolerated.
7. Reporting Spam
If you believe that you have received spam from
or through SBR’s facilities, please send a complaint from
your email account along with the unsolicited email, with completed
header, to admin@2-small-business.com.
Please provide any other information that you believe may help us
in our investigation. SBR does not investigate or take any action
based on “anonymous” spam complaints.
8. False Spam Complaints
SBR supports the efforts of various organizations
working to responsibly eliminate spam activities. However, if an
individual has opted-in to receive email from a customer of SBR,
and then falsely or maliciously files a spam complaint against SBR
or its customers, SBR will cooperate fully with the appropriate
agencies to ban the complainant from use of anti-spam software and
the Internet community.
