Comments:

Re: CAN-SPAM Act Rulemaking, Project No. R411008Commissioners,In seeking to reduce markedly the problem of unsolicited bulk email, you are proposing a requirement for merchants to maintain suppression lists.This is a major concern to businesses like my own, resulting in many problems and costs. Requiring the use of suppression lists will have significant impacts on the financial viability of businesses providing legitimate publications through the Internet. Requiring permission from consumers prior to adding them to a list will seriously impact on publishers who have to stipulate this prior to adding consumers to that list.The result is that CAN-SPAM is likely to do more damage to legitimate business than spam distributors. This is because suppression lists could easily fall into the hands of spammers, leading to more spam instead of less.There's also the potential for significant damage toconsumers, due to the problem of adequately knowing their intentions on unsubscribing. Problems of the foregoing type need to be carefully considered in drafting the CAN-SPAM Act. Yours faithfully,Dr Don MacRae ACT Australia