I'll be on that list until the day I die. Or later.

How hard is it to get OFF of lists?

1. Univ of MD at College Park (UMCP) Professor Carl Smith was an editor for JCSS before his death in 2004. I put together a memorial issue of JCSS in his honor that appeared in 2008. SO HOW COME HE IS STILL GETTING ISSUES OF JCSS AT UMCP IN 2012? Normally I would email JCSS about this, but whenever I do that they stop it for a while and then it starts again. So I am not going to bother.
2. I recently got the following email:

   
   William Gasarch
   SIGACT News
   
   Hi William,
   
   The winners of Russia's prestigious Debut Prize are
   presently in the U.S.  The newest of the winning books
   is Irina Bogatryreva's Off The Beaten Track which
   contains her story and two others about hitchhiking in
   Russia.  Irina is also available for interviews as she
   speaks English fluently!
   
   Please let me know if you would like to receive a copy
   of this new and interesting novel.
   
   The Debut Prize winners will be visiting select cities
   (Washington, Boston and New York) during their stay and
   will also return in June for BEA.
   
   I look forward to your thoughts.
   
   Best,
   Shirley
   

Why did I get that? As SIGACT NEWS book review editor I am on lists of book review editor. Technology is sophisticated enough generate lists of book review editors. I suspect it is not cost effective to figure out which editor is appropriate for which types of books since email is free. I have sometimes gotten actual books in the mail that are not math or CS--- that seems like more of a waste of the companies money (though the Biography of Ted Kennedy that I got was a good read.)

Is this a problem? Overall yes since it costs society something (money? time?) to have people (even dead people) on lists where they shouldn't be. But there does not seem to be an incentive on anyone who could fix it to fix it.