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. 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. 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. As a example,I have had a spammer who posed as me and sent millions of emails using a mirror page of my email address. When I contacted my email provided,they told me they could do nothing because the emails didn't orginate from their server. So what has this Act done? From my point of view as an online businessman,it has only made it harder to advertise and if this Act is implemented as stated, itwill put me and millions of other small businesses out of business. If that is what you want trying to do, then you will accomplish your task. If you are not aware of it,there is software available that will find and save every email address in the USA. This is then used in conjuction with software that will turn any computer into it's own server,bypassing an ISP's server. This is how the spammers do their work. Do you really think that making legitmate businesses keep a opt-out list and sharing that list with other businesses is going to STOP the SPAMMERS? Get real cause it won't. They will just continue to do what they are doing now. The only people who will get hurt are people like me who are trying to make some extra income in these poor economic times. PLEASE do not implement this as it is written. What you should be doing is outlawing the software that makes this possible. And requiring the ISP's to work together to block any email that does not originate from a legitmate server address. I don't know if that is possible,but I'm sure that it is possible to find out. Thank You, Stephen Currier