Comments:

I am VERY concerned about the federal budget deficit. Therefore we should NOT waste money on a "do not email" registry, but iinstead - have a national "opt-in" registry. This strategy, based on sound statistical data about the ratio of those who wish to receive unsolicited bulk email and those who don't, automatically opts-in to the registry any email address whose owner hasn't notified the FTC in writing of his objection in advance of the effective date of the registry. Because presence in the registry would be automatic unless a previous objection had been filed, billions of dollars could be saved by simply storing and searching only the email addresses of those who had filed objections. The "negative option opt-in" strategy will also produce substantial savings in the area of security. Since only the email addresses of those who actually wish to receive unsolicited commercial email would reside in the database, there is no need to protect such addresses from those who would send unsolicited commercial email to them. Other savings derive from the fact that the FTC's anti-fraud education efforts can be better focused on those who have shown themselves to in dire need of intensive education by indicating a desire to receive unsolicited commercial email. Sending each registry objector one anti-fraud email for each estimated unsolicited commercial sent to that same address would still yield considerable savings over present programs.