First SPAM fine in Romania
You arrive at office and turn on the laptop at 9.00 am in the morning, drinking your coffee. Push send/receive email to start the day. And here they are… my friends… Not again Urban&Asociatii (some lawyers) and Rentrop%Straton (some publishing house) ! The first are daily spammers, the second weekly spammers. They have something in common. They do not stop. You can unsubscribe(not working) or call them (not working) or even think to put o bomb at their offices (only if the servers are there).
Today is the first OFFICIAL fine (from ANRCTI) for the first of them. They have to pay … 300 Euro. Well, the bigger the theft is, the smallest the penalty is. We know this from 20 years of (their) freedom in Romania. It is a good moment and the best example the national authority can give. And the company’s response is the funniest ever !
We longly discussed this subject at APTI and had some actions against but without result. Bogdan already wrote about it (very nice post). Victor wrote the first about this matter and Hotnews gave a very good material.
UPDATE
On UrbanNews Website 
“Am decis sa demaram o campanie in baza careia, va solicitam sa ne transmiteti la adresa confirmareabonare@urbannews.ro , urmand ca din data de 11 martie 2008 sa stopam trimiterea newsletterului catre cei care nu vor confirma in scris faptul ca doresc sa il primeasca.”
We will see on 12 (tomorrow). I think they will loose 95% of subscribers.
UPDATE 2: 17 march. Urban keep spamming me.
11/03/2008 la ora 19:38
[...] pentru spam - intre bine si rau Taguri: News, Spam 11 Martie 2008 19:37 Vuieste tara ca Romania trece la alt nivel: A aparut prima amenda pentru spam, data de Autoritatea Nationala pentru [...]
13/03/2008 la ora 8:57
[...] nu e noua. Ce e nou despre ea (dar de cand haul in Romania) este ca se incearca musamalizarea prin moderarea [...]
19/03/2008 la ora 16:37
[...] As i said in a previous post there was a fine for Urban & Asociatii. There were like the all-internet-data-gathering. We made an internal address we used it not in public reasons. We received the “newsletter” even on that address ! I think is normal to be punished and to accept consequences. But is not normal to act like we, the people working daily in Romanian web, are like dust in the wind. Like the laws (are you lawyers?) and the Authorities doesn’t exist. Look at this attitude! [...]
19/03/2008 la ora 17:28
I think I’m starting to love the spams from U&A. Today i have the luck of getting over 40 emails or newsletters daily from urban. I love and read all of them, each and every morning (or whenever i get it- sometimes arrives, for some in the late afternoon). I love that unsubscribe doesn’t work - i’m not interested in their phones - and tbh, i love the fact that they are keep sending me bullshit news. Of course, i’m not interested about their domain but what the heck, i love reading 40 times their newsletter. Keep it up urban news guys, next fine from ANRCTI or whoever will be even lower then the one u got, or probably won’t be at all, if u manage to send your newsletter to all the romanian domains addresses and websites. And btw, check it out, u can reach even .com, .net and other tld domains, look at the site language meta -> see romanian, GRAB IT!
Again, urban news guys, u’re doing a GREAT JOB! U’re not spamming, of course, u’re stating this in your newsletter clear and for everyone to know and read: “Acest mesaj nu este SPAM. Contine datele noastre de identificare si instructiuni de dezabonare. V-a fost oferit din urmatoarele motive: ati solicitat primirea ofertei noastre, sunteti un client al firmei noastre, sunteti in baza noastra de date ca urmare a unor corespondente anterioare, adresa Dvs. a fost selectata dintr-o baza de date la care ati subscris, adresa dvs a fost facuta publica prin afisari cu caracter publicitar. Ne cerem scuze daca mesajul ajunge la Dvs. dintr-o eroare sau daca acest e-mail nu va aduce informatii utile.
Daca nu mai doriti sa primiti mesaje din partea Urban si Asociatii accesati:
http://www.urbannews.ro/dezabonare_news/
“. I mean WTF, can’t ppl read it ? Of course, i don’t give a shit about your company and stuff, and probably won’t understand in a billion of years how precious and hard working news u’ve gathered there.