Comments:

Re: CAN-SPAM Act Rulemaking, Project No. R411008 To the Commissioners, I can't think of anyone who isn't bothered to some degree by unsolicited commerical emails, particularly those that mention penis enlargement or prescription drugs, but I am very concerned about your consideration of adopting a suppression list as a requirement to all commerical email senders. 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. In my own business, a person would not receive an email from my company unless they willingly opted in. They are given full disclosure of who is sending the message, our valid mailing address and an opt out option in every single email. Our system is automated and will stop sending emails to that person immediately upon opting out, unless they sign up a second time. Also note that I sell products through affiliates and sell multiple products that are promoted on a stand alone basis. Imagine the headache of having 5 seperate mailing lists concerning completely different subject matters and having to maintain a suppresion list between all 5 as well as interacting with potentially hundreds of affiliates who I may or may not know at all because they are paid through Clickbank, who also has all of the personal information. For a small business owner, basically, you are in effect making email marketing completely not viable. Interestingly enough, the vast majority of emails my company sends have no direct "sales pitch" at all. My ezines all have a weekly article and I've gotten fairly regular praise about the quality. 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. Truthfully, I would be very disappointed to see this part of the legislation put into effect. It would likely also cause me to quite receiving the some 30 subscriptions I receive by email and by choice weekly. I truly believe that in the case of opt in email subscriptions, most consumers should be trusted to determine whether or not they want to receive them and no regulation is really needed. I also believe that most opt in email marketers have willingly attempted to prevent SPAM from their companies on every front voluntarily before these laws ever went into effect. Please do consider that we have done so before you make all email campaigns a nightmare rather than a customer building and retention tool. 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, Bill White Pres/CEO The Biggest Deal, Inc. Denton, Texas USA