The FTC is clear about advertising products that are touted as free.
Okay, so you receive an email with an offer to get some "must have"
marketing report - totally free. You click the link in the email and go
to the web page. But before you receive the report, you have to enter
your name and email address.
Then you have to confirm your email address and after confirmation, you receive another email with the download link in it.
To me, this is confirming your email address to JOIN someones list,
that you will receive emails from on probably a regular basis trying to
sell you something or download someone elses e-book (where you have to
go through the same process to get the e-book).
So the download you get is free, yes. Or do is it? You're giving up
your personal information just to get the download, only to continue
receiving emails from whomever you got the download from.
I suppose its all in ones perception of what is really free - isn't it.