Comments:

I would like to address my comments not only for myself, but also for many of my clients. 1) I, and many of my clients, depend upon email to stay in touch with customers, deliver product, send subscription newsletters, etc., We are all operating legitimate businesses and the Internet (email) allows us to keep in touch with customers and market to areas that are not at our back door. We are not snakeoil salesmen touting the newest and greatest fad. 2) This helps the U.S. economy in terms of increased flow of cash and increased tax revenues. 3) These legitimate businesses are not the perpetrators of spam. I don't mind receiving email from businesses I have ordered from. The majority of my incoming email messages (400+ messages a day) consist of viagra adds, adult entertainment, body part enlargement, weight loss, home mortgage offers and get out of debt quick schemes. I am a sole properietor with one employee. If I don't check my email on a daily basis my email box fills up with unwanted messages and legitimate email is being returned because the mailbox is full. It has gotten worse since the first of the year. 4) I don't believe the Act was designed to hurt legitimate online businesses, but rather, to curtail unsolicited email. 5) My clients and I run true opt-in lists and/or newsletters that give opt-out directions in every issue. Opt-out requests are honored 6) Some of these email newsletters are ad-supported publications. This is a business model that is almost universal in the world of periodical publications, and should not be considered as spam 7) Both suppression lists and a “Do Not E-mail” Registry would bring financial hardships resulting in many of these online business owners going out of business. 8) Newsletters using affirmative consent opt-in requests should be considered as relationship or transactional email messages and not considered the “commercial email” the Act is intended to control 9) Newsletters using affirmative consent opt-in requests should be exempted from the provisions of the Act.