Comments:

I run a small business, that would be crushed by this complete invasion of government into my small business life, if it were to pass. I use what is called opt in email. I do not harvest emails, or obtain emails in any way, other than my potential customers filling out a form and asking me for my emails. I get them to give me their email by giving them something for free in return. What I give them are free videos, training lessons etc that even if they never buy from me, benefit them and are of great value in solving their problems. Specifically problems related to exotic birds, and training them. These emails along with containing information, they can use, are designed to get them to trust me, so they will purchase from me. And believe it or not, I get complaints from people if they don't get my emails and the lessons they contain. If you were to pass this, I would be helping less people for free, and you would be taking away my ability to develope their trust. You have to keep opt in email available, just as it is. About refer a friend marketing. When someone refers a friend to my website via a form, I do it in such a way that I do not collect those peoples email address, and it is a complete recomendation by the referer. Are you going to stop our ability to let other people tell us about a good product or business that they found, that could legitimatly help them I will be completely crippled as a legitimate business, if this law passes, and it will be violation of the government into our small business lives. The majority of people who use opt in email never get complaints, ever. I have over 20,000 people on my e-mail list, and have never had one complaint, because it is an opt in email list. Stay out of our businesses with your regulations. Why don't you spend your time developing software programs that keep out unsolicited email instead of handicapping those that use it respectively, in hopes of catching the few that don't. Besides, the few that do abuse spam, can just take their operations to another country, and still send all that email, and be totally ineffective. I pray that you don't pass these regulations. Chet Womach Small Business Owner @ Birdtricks.com p.s. If you want to see how I use email, visit my website and see how a responsible business owner does it.