Comments:

As you see, I am a marketer resided in Scandinavia, and as such a reminder of the fact that the legislation you work with - which I appreciate! - influences the whole world, the global communication, and the well being of legitimate and fair businessess and customers all over the planet. Let me be completely clear about this: I do applaud your efforts. However, I am greatly concerned about the general effects of the legislation. Personally, I am not an expert at all, I am just a small business owner - and a decent and honest person. My only goal is to serve my customers and my business well. However, I fear that with the direction your legislation seems to take, it becomes impossible. It is like your honorable effort to prevent spam leads to preventing all sound business and human communication. The proposed requirement for merchants to maintain suppression lists is just one example. 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. I can't see how my business can survive requirements like that. And I fear that all the efforts, good will and money I have invested during the past two years will have been wasted. What am I to do if your legislation closes my business? And why should I be prevented from contributing positively to the world? 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. As I said previously, I am totally against spam. On the other hand it seems to me that the anti-spam efforts are now reaching a level that remind me of a Big Brother society. I come from Poland and I know very well what it does to a society and to the individual, if you control them too much. It does not stop the criminals - but it it cripples a society completely. And so, even if I am strongly against spamming, I must state this: If the price for preventing spam is the worldwide loss of free communication between businesses and their customers, and even the worldwide loss of free communication between individuals (as when referring friends), I'd rather live with spam. I urge you in the strongest possible terms to reconsider these matters Thank you very much Sincerely Halina Goldstein Denmark