We unfortunately have to be a bit of a bad cop to end the week. This week's e-mail update to subscribers of the Australian Small Cap Investigator went out to over 10,000 readers. Yep, that makes it one of the largest circulation newsletters in the country now, which is great.
What is not great is that the e-mail update was then forwarded over 1,000 times, presumably to people who are not paid-up subscribers. Last week, a Slipstream Trader update with a new trade was forwarded over 92 times to non-subscribers . The same is happening for Diggers and Drillers and The Swarm Trader and the Australian Wealth Gameplan. Paid-up readers are forwarding along the subscriber-only material at an alarming rate.
Not to dwell on the point, but the point is simply this: we can track this and we know who you are. We're basically anarcho-libertarians here at the Daily Reckoning. So it's not our style to threaten or coerce anyone. But if you're forwarding copyrighted material, you're breaking the law. Please, don't do it anymore.
Obviously, from time to time, you're going to forward something you find interesting. That's all good. It happens. We do it ourselves. But there are some chronic offenders who literally forward each newsletter or new trade to dozens of readers.
This is unfair to other paid subscribers and more importantly - with Swarm and Slipstream - notifying other people about the trades we're making is not in your best interests as a trader - especially if you're telling third parties where your stops are in a particular trade.
So we'll leave it at that for now. It's great that certain readers like the subscription material so much they want to spread the word. But please don't spread it too much. After all, our subscription prices are extremely competitive. So if you really think your friends should see what we're up to, ask them to take a punt and subscribe
Dan Denning
for The Daily Reckoning Australia
P.S. to get The Daily Reckoning direct to your inbox sign up to our free e-mail newsletter or if you prefer to use RSS, subscribe to the Daily Reckoning RSS feed.
Related Articles:
- UPDATE: Bigpond Blocking e-Mail from the Daily Reckoning Australia
- The Stock Market’s Law of Unintended Consequences
- S&P/ASX 200 Clears Resistance Line
- Bigpond Blocking e-Mail from the Daily Reckoning Australia
- When the US Economy Runs Aground
About the Author
Dan Denning is the author of 2005's best-selling The Bull Hunter (John Wiley & Sons). He began his financial publishing career in 1997 and has covered financial markets form Baltimore, Paris, London and, beginning in 2005 Melbourne. He’s the editor of The Daily Reckoning Australia and the Publisher of Port Phillip Publishing.
Comment by Pete on 23 October 2009:
Well written Dan
Comment by prozak on 23 October 2009:
"we can track this and we know who you are.."
Yeah Right!
If this is the case then I suggest that all your subscribers check this "fact" and start criminal and civil action against dailyreckoning and cease their subscription immediately!
There is no way you can legally track an email forward unless you end up seeing the forwarded emails with email addresses on them to people who are not subscribers.
If you are tracking it in any other way then you are breaking the law.
Comment by Coffee Addict on 24 October 2009:
Prozac
I disagree with you on this occasion. I'm not an IT expert but if each subscriber has a unique logon you could set up a subsciber arrangement whereby an identifier is embedded somehow in the text. So if that subsciber sends their copy to someone THEY are identifying themself for all (including Dan) to read. Dan doesn't need to do anything.
Cheers
Comment by Ned S on 24 October 2009:
Laws vary from country to country - A Brit database man told me many years ago that Brit privacy regs were exceptionally strict.
Talking about country - Ya'll recall the Oz pollie what stated in the house "I am a country member!" At which point Gough Whitlam chimed in "I remember!"
Comment by Bertie on 27 October 2009:
Folk can copy and paste into a new email? No?