>As far as I am concerned, ANY unsolicited email sent to a group mailing list is spam. However, in this case my email setting was set to allow Michael to sell my address, so I reset my email setting and called it good, nuff said except this...

A small correction to what you said: There is no mention anywhere on this site that emails are being sold. Despite the fact that UT has nothing to do in this, the account setup does indicate the following text which is the exact text: "Occasionnaly, I want to receive, by email or snail mail, useful information about related news and conferences".