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. If this law passes it will put publishers of online publications completely out of business. This would not be stood for if you were making these regulations for newpapers. Online newsletters or ezines are not different and should be given the same respect. If the person subscribing to the ezine or newsletter has double optin how do you see this different than a subscriber to a newspaper? Certainly if a major newspaper sent a person a copy of their newspaper by mistake their would be no penalities so why are online publications penalized under the existing and purposed law. In this country the kind of laws CanSpam represent if applied in the physical world would be considered supression of free speach. The Canspam act has caused for me personally to have my computer broke into and spam sent from my computer. Spammers are not being stopped by this law only small business is being stopped. I for one have worked very hard to build a ezine since 1998. These laws and purposed laws have almost put me out of business. I am over 65 and was really counting on this business to supplement my retirement. 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 purpose that email be treated just like junk mail through the US mail if you want to send bulk mailing then you pay a fee. You are investigated to see if you are a legitimate company and then you are issued a permit. Why is email so different? I receive mountains of junk mail which I line my garbage can with at my home. The only difference is email saves trees. 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, Judi Singleton Oregon USA