Comments:

I believe that the National Do Not Email Registry would do much to harm ezine publishers who operate on an opt in basis and promote the products of affiliate programs they've joined within their ezines. Ezine publishers work very hard to provide their subscribers with useful, relevant content about topics that their subscribers are interested in such as marketing, search engines, gardening, etc., This keeps their subscribers interested in their ezine and allows them to build up a loyal readership. Many times, in addition to their own products, ezine publishers promote the products of companies whose affiliate programs they've joined, not only to earn commissions, but because those companies offer products that their subscribers would find to be valuable. In my opinion, most ezine publishers work very hard to provide their subscribers with useful content and resources and only promote the products of companies who offer products that will truly benefit their subscribers. If the Do Not Email Registry is implemented it will deprive ezine publishers of a way to profit from their ezine by promoting the products of affiliate programs they've joined. It will also hurt their subscribers because they won't be able to learn more about products that will help them. This isnt fair to ezine publishers, or to companies who rely on providing an affiliate program for their customers and visitors to join to bring in new business. In addition the National Do Not Email Registry will also deprive ezine publishers of being able to sell advertising space in their ezine because some of their subscribers, people that opted in to receiving their ezine, may have also opted out of ever hearing about a company ever again by email. I believe that ezines should be looked at in the same way as magazines who advertise products within their issues -- the subscriber or reader may not like every product advertised in the ezine, or may even have had a bad experience with a company advertised within the magazine; nonetheless the reader doesn't have the right to decide who will or wont be advertised within the magazine. This is a discretion that should be left up to the publisher. The Do Not Email Registry will also hurt companies who offer services such as autoresponders or mailing list management. These companies work hard to make sure that their customers comply with the CAN-SPAM act and operate optin lists where everybody on the list has agreed to receive email. I also would like to say that I am not for giving rewards to people for reporting CAN-SPAM violations. I believe this will cause a lot of businesses and ezine publishers to be falsely accused of spam. I also believe that people can be trusted to complain about legitimate instances of spam without a reward system in place, because receiving spam is annoying and lends itself to being complained about. I thank you for reading this message, and for the opportunity to make my positions known on this issue. Ken Hill