| Comment Number: | EREG-000105 |
| Received: | 4/13/2004 3:49:51 PM |
| Organization: | Brooks House LLC |
| Commenter: | Karl Augustine |
| State: | WA |
| 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, It is nice to see that your efforts are increasing to curb the problem of unsolicited bulk email, and spam is negative for everyone. 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 urge you to consider this matter most carefully. Requirement of the use of suppression lists will seriously damage the legitimate publications available on the net...including mine. My specific concern is for harm to publishers who require permission from the consumer prior to adding them to any list. If they signed up for messages from these websites, I feel that should be allowed. They're not who CAN-SPAM was designed to put out of business, but this requirement will very likely have that effect. In addition, there's also the potential for significant harm to consumers (myslef included), because of the problem of properly knowing their intent when they unsubscribe from a list. These suppression lists could easily fall into the hands of spammers, leading to more spam instead of less...given my technical understanding of the Internet and usenet, the possibility of this is high. 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, Karl Augustine Concerned online publisher and consumer Issaquah WA United States of America