CAN SPAM Act Violation?

yogaapp

New Member
I am creating an app that will link yoga instructors to potential students. In order to make the app usable, I will need to have a decent amount of yoga instructors available before release. I have found the emails of these instructors online and would like to email them telling them about the app and asking for their permission to be featured on it. Would this violate the CAN-SPAM Act?


Based on this my research on CAN-SPAM, I have two concerns:

-The method I received these emails
-Whether or not this act is considered "commercial content"

I would greatly appreciate any help with this, especially in regards to my two concerns.
 
Just don't do it, even if you think it sent spam. Besides, I never respond to unsolicited emails.
Con artists and scammers that send unsolicited SPAMMAIL send millions of emails hoping to get about a 2% response rate, closing on 50% of respondents.

It's only going to make people angry, and angry people rarely become customers.

If you do what's right, the law is always obeyed.
 
Thank you for your quick response. My intention is not to upset them or take advantage of them through this email. I will not be charging them in any way to use the app (similar to how restaurants are not required to pay Yelp) and the instructors get free publicity. This is just a project that I am working on during my free time after school and work that may make me some extra change through ads. I'd assume that if I told yoga instructors in person about this free service of linking instructors and students they would be interested in trying it out. Would the medium of communication of email make this spam?

Would this still be considered spam if the yoga instructors explicitly stated on their website (where I found the emails) that they welcome any questions, comments, and concerns related to their yoga activities and services? Thanks again for your help.
 
All I know is I wouldn't do it the way you're suggesting.
Emails shotgunned fail to have the impact you desire unless you send billions of them, to eventually capture 1% or so. All you'll do, free or not, (which it isn't free, because if you don't pay, you become the currency, NOTHING is free), is annoy, irritate, and agitate most of your targets.

Your unsolicited email hardens back to the telemarketers who spammed our landlines back in the last decade of the previous century.

Besides, I can't grant you permission to call spam ham and tell you it's okay to splatter it all over the Internet. It'll have the opposite effect than that you seek.
 
California BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE SECTION 17529-17529.9

See the California Attorney General's announcement concerning spam law.

A large law firm has a good article on CAN-SPAM and compliance measures which you can take. I think you'll find this particularly useful in the way you can conduct business.

Having a good unsubscription method is important. I tend to find that even where there are technicalities that may have been unintentionally missed, people will not be vindictive if the message itself doesn't reek of unsolicited spam which implies a complete lack of care for the recipient's cares and concerns. The content can go a long way towards impact upon your audience.
 
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