Perry Marshall has a concept called The Maze that is the best thing I've encountered as far as a strategy to dodge the whole spam issue. Check his stuff out and look into this Maze concept if you're interested...he basically structures his email lists as a maze that people jump from list to list and self-select how much they want to hear from him. I've gone through his maze as a member and it was awe-inspiring, really. Highly influenced my own activities and continues to guide me in staying away from spamming and focusing on building a maze where subscribers get to choose exactly how much--or how little--to hear from me.
For myself, I notice that I don't stay subscribed to lists for long if spamming is going on. And there are other lists I'm on that I love hearing from the list owner and even buy through their affiliate links happily because their recommendations mean something.
Just my two cents...