Comment Number: OL-104606
Received: 4/17/2004 10:31:22 AM
Organization: InstantBizOpps
Commenter: Calvin Morris
State: AZ
Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Rule: CAN-SPAM ANPR
Docket ID: [3084-AA96]
No Attachments

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. Currently we have the ability to maintain our own optin email lists that work quite well. Customers can subscribe and unsubscribe at will. Please let us take care of our own business using this method. Please find another way other than suppression lists to stop people who promote porn and drugs via email using fake from email addresses? We filter them out and their software just generates a slightly different from address and they are right back sending us their crud! 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. 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, Calvin Morris Arizona-Maricopa County