Comments:

Re: CAN-SPAM Act Rulemaking, Project No. R411008 To the Commissioners, Your efforts to curb the problem of unsolicited bulk email are to be applauded. However, I am quite concerned about the proposed requirement for merchants to maintain suppression lists. There are numerous problems and costs associated with this idea, along with a great amount of damage that can be done to both consumers and businesses. I am compelled to urge you to consider this matter with the utmost care. Requiring the use of suppression lists will seriously damage many of the legitimate publications that are available on the net. I am particularly concerned about harm to publishers who require permission from the consumer before adding them to any list. They're not the ones CAN-SPAM was designed to put out of business, but this requirement will very likely have that effecton those trying to do business legitimately. I wish to also point out the potential for significant harm to consumers because of the problem of not knowing exactly why they unsubscribe from a list. To make matters even worse, these suppression lists could easily be acquired by spammers, who would delight in sending more spam—thus magnifying the very problem you are trying to stop. I was indeed surprised to learn of the potential problems this ruling could involve, and I urge you in the strongest possible terms to reconsider its implementation in consideration of these problems. Respectfully, Mary Jean Simpson Connecticut, USA