Comments:

HI, I am on a lot of email lists - and I am happy with the optin rules. I have had no problems with the people that ask me to sign up for their lists. 1) What can happen is that I get very busy and I ask to be unsubscribed - this does not mean that I never want to hear from them again - just that I am busy now. I don't want to be excluded from their lists on a permanent basis. 2) A lot of the lists I subscribe to are by individuals and not big companies - it seems reasonable that these people would like to go on vacation of 2- 3 weeks and so the mandatory removal time seems harsh - unless they can automate the process. Finally I think that the can spam rules are a great idea - but all that seems to be happening is that it takes me longer to get to what I want and the email offers for viagra and the like still come in. Good business people will follow the rules and crooks will not. Recognising this the rules need to be clear on intent but still protect the innocent business man and the customer. As a final thought I run a website called www.everyday-taichi.com and one of the main reasons is that I do not have a newsletter is because I do not want to find myself accused of sending spam. This seems contary to the idea of free speech in a democracy. Meanwhile, thanks for trying - and I wish you luck in treading the fine line between driving out the crooks and stopping the good guys making a living