There's no question the list
WAS available through a Direct Marketing firm:
CNN: Direct-mail firm using Schindlers' Donor list
NYT: List of Schiavo Donors Will Be Sold by Direct-Marketing Firm
However, it appears the list was not sold by the Schindlers to the direct marketing firm, but essentially was part of a quid pro quo arrangement related to the direct marketing firm's having undertaken management of email fundraising for the Schindler cause. The list itself largely derived through the efforts of the direct marketing firm in the first place, arguably renderin' it the firm's property to begin with, and in any event, though apparently it had been available, as would be common practice under such arrangements, for purchase by interested parties for about 2 weeks, by the time it became "News", it had been withdrawn from the direct marketing firm's product list.
Quote:Manager Removes Schiavo List From Site
March 30, 2005
By: Scott Hovanyetz
Senior Editor
[email protected]
A list of donors to a fund set up by the parents of Terri Schiavo apparently was
no longer advertised in a catalog of lists on offer from list manager/broker Response Unlimited as of yesterday following a report in The New York Times.
Response Unlimited, Waynesboro, VA, had advertised the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation Active Donors list as early as March 15. An ad on the broker's Web site had offered 6,198 2005 donor names for $150 per thousand and 4,439 opt-in e-mail addresses for $500 per thousand.
"Each of these donors responded to an e-mail during February 2005 from Terri Schindler-Schiavo's father on behalf of his daughter," the ad stated. "These compassionate pro-lifers donated toward (Schiavo father) Bob Schindler's legal battle to keep Terri's estranged husband from removing the feeding tube from Terri."
As of yesterday, a link to the ad found through a Google search led to a page that stated, "This list is not a managed property of Response Unlimited, contact for details." A call to Response Unlimited president and founder Philip Zodhiates was not returned yesterday.
The Times reported on the list in a story in yesterday's editions. According to the Times,
Schiavo's father had consented to rental of the list in exchange for Response Unlimited's handling of an e-mail campaign to raise money on the family's behalf.
When making decisions on how a list should be used, direct marketers must be conscious of the wishes of the list's owner, said Lou Mastria, spokesman for the Direct Marketing Association. The DMA's ethical guidelines also state that promotions and ads for marketing lists should "reflect a sensitivity for the consumers on those lists."
"The marketer is duty bound to be sensitive to what the list owner wants to do," Mastria said. "It comes down to what the list owner believes is best for that asset."
There doesn't appear to be much "There" there, does there?
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