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, as a company that does 99% of it's business over the internet (software and other electronic download sales) I am concerned about the proposed requirement for merchants to maintain suppression lists. I'm going to elucidate more fully below - but what you need to understand is that the people who "spam" do not care about, nor will they be affected by this part of this legislation. They will continue to send out unsolicted "bulk" e-mail using bogus MSN, Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo! and other type e-mail services and addresses. However, on the other hand, for those of us doing a legitimate business, it will hamstring us. I will essentially prevent us from being able to effectively market to people on our own lists or on lists that we obtain through legitimate opt-in methods. Imagine if you would - that you're passing a law that forbid mass-mails via US Post that kept companies from sending out mailers to their own customer base and to customers purchased from list building companies! It is ridiculous. Even worse - you are also harming companies formed in the US because we won't be able to market in the same way other companies around the world do (and my software sells in over 20 different countries). They won't be restrained by this law and will continue to market effectively and responsibly. And believe me all the spammers will immediately move to servers in Malaysia and still send out the same junk! Do you get that part yet? 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, Phillip Zannini GlobalSync Enterprises, Inc. *REDACTED PERSONAL INFORMATION*