The backlash against what is formally called unsolicited commercial e-mail — what most of us refer to as spam, when some stronger description doesn’t come to mind — has forced online marketers to find more responsible ways to communicate with their potential customers. Methods regarded as acceptable in direct mail, such as buying lists of prospects from a list broker, are considered objectionable online. And the electronic medium makes it difficult for list brokers to retain control over a list of addresses. One solution being tried is an opt-in system in which people sign up to receive messages about specific kinds of products from a middleman. This firm doesn’t sell lists of addresses, but instead forwards information supplied by marketers to people on its list who say they want to receive it. This system has been given the name of permission-based marketing, a term that is still mainly jargon, but which is beginning to appear more widely. Other forms of the phrase which have also been used are permission e-mail marketing and permission-based direct marketing. The Company offers a comprehensive suite of outsource messaging services for information delivery, e-commerce services, permission-based direct marketing, ongoing customer communications and real-time customer feedback solutions using industry standard Internet protocols. Business Wire, Dec. 1999 Jay McAniff, an Aristotle spokesman, said the firm used only “permission-based marketing”, based on information entered voluntarily by internet users. Guardian, Jan. 2000