About e-mail advertising

I read on http://blog.contextweb.com/ that e-mail adverttising is free and absolutely low cost solution.
For online business you will be better is you follow the rules. So e-mail advertising and spam is forbiden in some countries. I didn't know but learnt from a friend of mine, that for example in Germany it is outlaw. So you better be careful with this advertising.
I don't like it, and I think it is not proper solution. Why?
First of all, it is spaming user e-mails. I recieve thousands of newsletters on my e-mail every day and I don't read them. I think 99.99% from these ads are just a spam, and more of them there is no place to unsubscribe. So if you want to create a newsletter of your own business you better be very careful on what kind of people you are sending your e-mails and to make it at most user friendly as you can. Also put an unsubscribe working address, on easy to find place.
Second I don't think it is helpful to users. Promoting (by spaming) of products by internet is absolutely flood, and more people even don't read the ads. So you are losing money, time and a lot of nervous.
Try to build the most user friendly newsletter, and you will have a success.