I have a list of 200 million emails and I am wanting to sell it.....would this be illegal??

No, if they are harvested or taken without the email owners explicit permission for distribution.

It would appear that the only use for such a mailing list would be for Unsolicited Commercial Emails or Spam, such activities are frown upon and in some places it may be deemed illegal.

It is probably not a good idea to do it.

Do you mean 'Yes', Sammylee?

But I agree - spam is deemed illegal in most jurisdictions, but whether selling such a list is also illegal, I'm not sure as lists of email addresses are sold all the time.

I personally wouldn't touch it. Not only is the list probably of very little value, if a number of those recipients made spam complaints to regulatory boards, you could find yourself in trouble.

Our best bet is to learn how to market ethically.

Rather than sell it, why don't you try and monterise it?

By this I mean try and align yourself with a business who has a promotion they want to market. Don't give them the data but say for a small fee that you would be willing to send their email campaign out to your list. Even better if they are selling something and its not a free giveaway, work in a commission so that any sales made via the campaign you get a slice

I had a data company asking me if I was interested in doing this with my data, now I know they just want me to hand it over (there a data company!!! no way they are having it to sell on again for pure profit). So i negotiated that I would send their campaign for another of their clients out to our list, but using our email software to do so and also for a a flat rate commission fee on any sales that then occur.

Illegal, you must have them opt-in and agree to your terms and your terms must say what you intend to do with them.

Legally you can sell it if the subscribers opted in and you specifically stated in your terms that you would be able to resell their details. Ethically I wouldn't say it is right though.

Definitely not legal.

Definitely got lots of opinions here!

Here's an idea... kind of risky but totally legal... if you have a list that you have used in the past for a legit business, find someone who needs fresh leads and say, "Hey you want to use these? If you get a sale, I charge 10% ( or whatever) of what you make". Hmm.