Comments:

Re: CAN-SPAM Act Rulemaking, Project No. R411008 To the Commissioners, I applaud your long overdue efforts to curb the problem of rampant unsolicited bulk email (at present I receive on average between 150-200 such messages EACH day!). I am concerned, however, about the proposed requirement for merchants to maintain suppression lists. As a business owner who operates an opt-in maillist I don't send messages to people unless they have previously requested communication from me about my program and products offered by my company and have never purchased or leased a 3rd party list. All opt-in confirmations are kept on file, along with IP address of the party requesting the info for purposes of proving that the message request was indeed initiated by the recipient. My mail communications to the list frequently contain beneficial, educational information for list subscribers. Each message I send to my list contains a link for the recipient to remove himself easily from the distribution list should he have changed his mind and no longer wish to receive information from me about my products. There are so many problems and costs associated with the suppression list 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, Respectfully, Valdimar Thorkelsson Houston, Texas