Comments:

>> > As you know, the U.S. Congress passed the CAN-SP*M Act last > year and it became effective on January 1st, 2004. > > The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the federal agency in > charge of issuing regulations and enforcing the Act. They > have asked for comments from interested parties and you > have until April 20, 2004 to submit your comments > electronically online or by mail. > > Why should you care? > > The CAN-SP*M Act regulates all commercial email sent to or > from the United States. That means if you send any email > for any reason even remotely related to business, then you > are covered by this Act. > > Now, I know that many of you are not taking this Act > seriously and I've had several people tell me that I should > lighten up. Well, I'm not going to lighten up. The business > of selling things to your prospects and customers via email > is changing - and not for the better. > What should be of particular concern to all marketers is the > proposed requirement that you maintain a suppression list. > That means that you would keep a list of all the email > addresses that are submitted to you and request never to > receive email from you again. If you have just one list and only send your own products to that list, that might be > simple enough. > > But if you promote another product - as an affiliate, for > example - the law would require you to make certain to > acquire that product owner's suppression list and remove > those email addresses from your list for this particular > mailing. And as a product owner, you would be required to > verify that all advertisers or affiliates who promote your > product by email are using your suppression list so that > none of those email addresses receive email promoting your > product. > > Of course, that sounds like big ol' mess. And it is. > > In fact, most affiliate programs will ban you from using > email for promotions unless you can prove that you have the > technology to handle the suppression list issues. Since > that's not readily available to most of you, that's going > to cost you. > > In my opinion and many others, there's no need for this type > of mess because it won't do much to stem the tidal wave of > spam you get. Those guys are not using suppression lists > anyway. > > You should also be concerned about the FTC proposing that the only way to meet the requirement of putting your > physical address in every business email will only be > satisfied with a street address. If you work from home, > that would mean the law requires you to put your home > address in every single business email. > > > Barry Biscoe