Comments:

Re: CAN-SPAM Act Rulemaking, Project No. R411008 To the Commissioners, The concern with solving the spam problem is commendable. However, I fear that your solution creates a much larger problem than it solves. The proposed requirement for merchants to maintain suppression lists will incur so much cost and complexity that it will harm small business and consumers alike. I urge you to reconsider the consequences of your proposed requirement. Specifically, the use of suppression lists affects legitimate publications on the net far more than illegitimate ones that are the intended target. This is true simply due to the fact that legitimate businesses far outnumber illegitimate businesses. Publishers who require permission from the consumer prior to adding them to any list, aren’t who CAN-SPAM was designed to put out of business. Consumers could be adversely affected because they won’t understand the consequences of un-subscribing from a list. There may easily be other products of interest to which they will unknowingly be denied access. I can foresee a devastating loss to small businesses which are ever increasingly advertising through the internet. Just when the economy appears to be picking up, this could suffer it another blow. I was rather unpleasantly amazed at this solution and believe that the consequences have not be accurately predicted. I implore you to please review thoroughly this requirement that you are considering implementing. Surely a solution can be arrived at which won’t have the potential of strangling small businesses and affiliate programs across the U.S. with such complexity. Respectfully, Lyn Blair California, USA