Comments:

Re: CAN-SPAM Act Rulemaking, Project No. R411008 To the Commissioners, I applaud your efforts to curb the problem of unsolicited bulk email. However, I am very concerned about the proposed requirement for merchants to maintain suppression lists. There are so many problems and costs associated with this idea, and so much damage done to consumers and businesses alike, that I feel I must urge you to consider this matter most carefully. Requirement of the use of suppression lists will seriously damage many of the legitimate publications available on the Internet. My specific concern is for harm to e-publishers like myself, who require permission from the consumer prior to adding them to any list. They're not who CAN-SPAM was designed to put out of business, but this requirement will very likely have that effect on my activities as an e-publisher [I am the publisher at http://profits.cc , a weekly e-newsletter targeting the US consumer]. There's also the potential for significant harm to consumers, because of the problem of properly knowing their intent when they unsubscribe from a list. On top of that, these suppression lists could easily fall into the hands of spammers, leading to more spam instead of less. I was quite surprised at the potential problems this ruling could involve, and urge you in the strongest possible terms to reconsider its implementation in light of these problems. In my e-newsletter, when a subscriber 'opts-out', he/she will never receive again any emails from the publisher. I also NEVER give my subscribers' email addresses to a 3rd party. I also have in place a double opt-in system. My greatest concern right now is the fact that so many spammers are using my domain 'profits.cc'. I keep complaining to several ISPs and web hosting companies in the US, but the problem never ends. Apparently, forging domain names in email broadcast is technically easy. How can we stop spammers from such bad practices? Yours sincerely, *REDACTED PERSONAL INFORMATION* Lisbon, Portugal