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 concerned about the proposed requirement for merchants to maintain suppression lists. 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. 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. Concerning the matter of PO Boxes, many start ups begin their businesses in a home office. It is a matter of safety for some to not publish a physical address. I have to say, as someone who has been doing business via the internet for 5 years, there is a huge difference between someone like me and someone that is intentionally spamming. I recieve almost 1,000 spam messages a day and those are all from people who have harvested my email addresses from my websites or who purchased my email from a list broker. They use cloaking techniques and false email addresses to disguise themselves and send hundreds of thousands of emails a day. What they are doing has nothing to do with the operations of a business owner like me. I find it disheartening to find that after 5 years worth of work to establish a customer base, I will be penalized because of the illegal and unethical activities of others. I implore you to research fully the difference between the types of commercial emails and please do all that you can not to penalize legitimate businesses. When dealing with thousands of contacts, there will be people who forgot they subscribed to a list or will have the experience of other people registering them for lists or even mistakes made on the part of legitimate companies like mine, however, I it is fair or right to penalize for a small fraction of minor inconveniences that do occasionally arise during the normal course of business. Respectfully, Ricci Neer, President Get The Word Out! Round Rock, TX