The german Federal Court of Justice decided that any business that publishes an e-mail-address or fax number on its’ homepage has to accept unsolicited advertising (a.k.a spam), according to the news magazine Tagesschau. The judges argued that publication of an e-mail-address constitutes implicit approval to receiving advertisments.

I hope Tagesschau got something wrong in their report, because else I would have to assume that german judges do not know german law. Because commercial ventures (and that includes me as a freelancer) are forced by law to publish their e-mail address (”Angaben, die eine schnelle elektronische Kontaktaufnahme und unmittelbare Kommunikation mit ihnen ermöglichen, einschließlich der Adresse der elektronischen Post“, § 5 TMG ).

Frankly the fact that I’m forced to do something by threat of punishment does not mean I approve of the possible consequences.