Comments:

Re: CAN-SPAM Act Rulemaking, Project No. R411008 To the Commissioners, Please take care of the porn, and spammers who send out millions of e-mail messages at once, but protect those compaanies who work off of marketing lists specific to their industry, and who are only trying to use the most cost effective way to contact potential consumers of their information and services. We run a new newspaper for legal nurses, our database is only 14,000 names, and we opt people out after an e-mail send, how are we to protect our rights to be able to market to individuals who are interested and compelled to read our information over the minority who only complain at legitimate companies trying to convey a message about there industry. I appreciate your work on this matter. I applaud your efforts to curb the problem of unsolicited bulk email. However, I am 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 net. My specific concern is for harm to publishers 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. 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. You can read a more detailed explanation of my concerns here: [[Your URL with the long form letter here]] 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, Respectfully, William Potthoff St. Louis, MO