My Server Marked As Abuse: Spam

I have a client on my server from ThePlanet. That client sends a newsletter once a week to about 50,000 recipients with a program that i built. The list was purchased from a company that sells targeted directory listings.

Each email has a very clear opt out link, and one click takes them off the list. There is also a direct link to the contact form, as well as the information of the company sending the mass emails (me). This should satisfy all regulatory requirements to comply with existing laws.

Now, these emails have been sent once a week for about a month now. Today, ThePlanet issued a support ticket entitled "Abuse: Spam Source". It seems that there was a problem from aol, and one of the emails was redacted.

Reading through ThePlanet terms of service, it seems that they only allow closed system mass mailings. So now I am faced with a problem, because I have a client who expects to send out emails next week with a system i built, and I have a hosting provider that is demanding some sort of "proof" that these emails are solicited.

For the record, this newsletter isn't junk spam like selling viagra or pumping a stock. It is a free weekly summary of significant new york appellate cases, and it has been very well received by the attorneys on the mailing list. There have been ridiculously few opt outs ( < 2%), and there have been literally *hundreds* of emails coming back to show their gratitude for the free service. Not even one comment has been negative.

So what can I do now? A significant number of attorneys on this list are expecting the newsletter, but it cant be sent due to this problem.

The best that I could come up with so far is to send an "Opt in" mass email, where users must click the link to opt in, and everyone else would be removed from the mass email. I could then use the unique keys used for opt ins as "proof" for ThePlanet that the emails are solicited.