Comments:

Re: CAN-SPAM Act Rulemaking, Project No. R411008 To the Commissioners, I do not believe the CAN SPAM Act will have much appreciable impact on the proliferation of unsolicited commercial email. Although there are many senders of this email they evade US law by using offshore servers. I have witnessed no slowing of UCE since the act was implemented. If this problem is to be addressed effectively there must be a mechanism to prevent the offshore purveyors of unsolicted mass commercial mail from reaching US recipients. In addtion to this glaring problem another vital facet is going unnoticed. There are many small and medium sized businesses that depend on email for their marketing. Requiring these businesses to comply with suppression lists will force many out of business due to the expensive technology necessary for compliance. The majority of them are honest people with no intent for harm or insult. Shackling them with required suppression list managment will be a waste of time and will not accomplish what the act is meant to do. Consumers will also suffer in that they will have less choice in the marketplace. There is also cause for concern in that unscrupulous business people could acquire the suppression lists of their competitiors to use against them by sending UCE to the very people who have opted-out thereby implicating innocent merchants. Bulk email promoters may also gain access to these suppression lists and intentionally mail to the lists causing irreparable harm and untold chaos for many legitimate businesses forced to share their opt-out lists. There is a great potential for harm if the requirement for suppression lists is implemented in it's present draft. I urge you to consider all ramifications of such a policy before making it law. I believe that technology and the law can work together to reduce or eliminate UCE in a manner that is good for legitimate businesses and consumers. It is imperative that noncompliant service providers be held accountable and barred access to American computer networks in order to control the epidemic of SPAM. Although some domestic providers are also part of the problem they are under US jurisdiction and can be forced to comply. Respectfully, Mr. Schumann New York, USA