The SMTP way of checking if an email exists is on the wrong side of CANSPAM, beginning the sending process to check an address is specifically addressed. And this assumes you didn't systematically "guess" the address.
It speaks volumes about the marketing industry and how readily ethics and compliance are accepted even by companies that theoretically face consequences (though CanSpam seems to be lacking in enforcement here).
There are products that definitely make it past the seed round and sometimes even as public companies before enforcement notice that their entire product runs afoul the law.
CAN-SPAM regulates "sending electronic mail messages". Connecting to an SMTP server to ask it if an address exists doesn't sound like that to me, but IANAL.
majority of mail servers do not support VRFY command, that is why the generic method of checking mail box is trying to send message (via MAIL FROM + RCPT TO) and breaking the sending halfway through
Okay, but that still sounds to me like taking an overly technical view. I doubt the courts will consider it sending an email if an email isn't received.
The act uses defines the word "initiate" and the SMTP only allows "asking if an address exists" via initiating a send (and then dropping the connection before a message is sent).
The act does define the word initiate, but it defines it to mean what the person who originally sends a message does so they can exempt relays. It's not originating or transmitting a message if you break off the connection before a message is fully transmitted.
> The term "initiate", when used with respect to a commercial electronic mail message, means to originate or transmit such message or to procure the origination or transmission of such message, but shall not include actionsthat constitute routine conveyance of such message.
I also don't think (but with less certainty) that what isn't fully sent counts as a message, as the primary purpose is verifying if the address exists. Message is defined as
> any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or pro-motion of a commercial product or service
Can you point out where in CAN-SPAM checking an address is specifically addressed? I haven't heard of this and a quick perusal of CAN-SPAM doesn't turn this up anywhere
