Some time ago - towards the middle of March judging by my email archive - we contacted the makers of a Mac OS development application to enquire about snagging a demo. We sometimes need to create some fairly complex UML diagrams and OmniGraffle just wasn't cutting it anymore, so we took a quick Google trip and find the antagonists of this little tale. I won't name names, but suffice it to say that we chose not to try out their demo when informed that we had to buy it for $40. Even as a small percentage of the purchase price of their software, being made to pay for the privilege of trying someone else's product runs contrary to many of my beliefs about how the world should work.

So, no real harm done. One potential sale lost and we moved on (though we still haven't found a decent UML package - any advice?). Then all of a sudden today - mere hours ago - a newsletter from said software company lands in my inbox. Given how unimpressed we were at being asked to fork out for a demo, we certainly never subscribed to a newsletter.

More to the point, it's actually illegal. Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) regulations specifically prohibits contacting people for a purpose other than the one you originally collected their information for - i.e.: exchanging emails with someone doesn't give you permission to add them to your mailing list. We spend a fair bit of time working with our clients to make sure that their sites conform to PIPEDA (which is more strict than equivalent US regulations if I understand correctly), not only because it's important to treat your clients with respect, but because it's the law.

Addendum (June 7th, 2006): in all fairness to the unnamed, privacy fouling miscreants, their newsletter did include an obvious unsubscribe address. No confirmation came back, of course, so I suppose it's the "I'm unsubscribed until I'm not" game. One baby step forward.