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. I receive over 150 unsolicited emails a day. Many of these are probably from the same spammers; however each day, they change the name or the subject in a subtle way, negating a chance to use filters. I also miss some emails that I have requested, because they may contain a word that is currently on the "suppress" list. 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. Unfortunately, legislation is NOT the way to handle this problem, because you take control away from consumers (see AOL as an example - they filter a number of emails before they even reach their subscribers email box and are receiving quite a number of complaints). 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. My suggestion is to create a "complaint" department and allow consumers to directly complain; but these complaints should be followed up on only after the consumer proves that they have followed all the steps necessary to remove themselves from a mailing list and are still receiving unsolicited mail. Most ISP's have filtering options and this should be the first resort; with the Complaint Department as the last Respectfully, Jan Spindler California