Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited
Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 Aka. CANSPAM Act of 2003 and
How it Will Affect Our Email Marketing Campaigns.
Lately, there’s been allot of buzz about the recent legislation
relating to email, specifically in the form of the CANSPAM Act of
2003. From reading prominent discussion boards and talking with
other webmasters and self employed individuals, there seems to be
allot of confusion as to what the CANSPAM Act is and how it will
impact our future marketing campaigns. In this article, I will attempt
to shed some light on the underlying meaning of this 21 page law
(in PDF format directly downloaded from congress itself, it is 21
pages long), and attempt to offer suggestions to keep your marketing
efforts within Uncle Sam’s guidelines.
Disclaimer - I am NOT a lawyer. The following commentary is my
review of the CANSPAM Act of 2003, and my interpretations of it.
I offer suggestions that I feel comply with the requirements of
the CANSPAM Act of 2003. I am only human, and therefore suggest
that you double-check my suggestions with a legal representative.
You can find a complete copy of the act at http://thomas.loc.gov/
. When you get there, enter a search for CAN-SPAM and it will take
you to a page of results. Be sure to click the final results which
will state something like "Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed
by Both House and Senate". This is the act in final form, with
amendments as they are added. You could also try the direct link:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c108:3:./temp/~c108ggLdPs::
With the way the government tends to move things around, I would
go the first route and search at the Thomas Register. The top of
the results pages will give you options for downloadable versions.
I’d suggest you download your own copy if you have a business you
run and use email or websites to market it.
Government Findings & Decisions - Government Reasoning and
how the CANSPAM Act of 2003 Came About & the Problems it Addresses
Government Findings - The Reasoning Behind the CANSPAM Act of
2003
The act was established to regulate interstate commerce by imposing
limitations and penalties on the transmission of unsolicited commercial
electronic mail via the Internet. It goes into full affect January
1, 2004, with certain sections to be updated over the next year
or so. In our lawmakers’ quests to make the world a better place
to live, their task forces researched email as the public viewed
it, and how we use it. Congress noted their findings, and based
the law on these findings. The findings copied and pasted directly
from the act are:
- (1) Electronic mail has become an extremely important and
popular means of communication, relied on by millions of Americans
on a daily basis for personal and commercial purposes. Its low
cost and global reach make it extremely convenient and efficient,
and offer unique opportunities for the development and growth
of frictionless commerce.
- (2) The convenience and efficiency of electronic mail are
threatened by the extremely rapid growth in the volume of unsolicited
commercial electronic mail. Unsolicited commercial electronic
mail is currently estimated to account for over half of all
electronic mail traffic, up from an estimated 7 percent in 2001,
and the volume continues to rise. Most of these messages are
fraudulent or deceptive in one or more respects.
- (3) The receipt of unsolicited commercial electronic mail
may result in costs to recipients who cannot refuse to accept
such mail and who incur costs for the storage of such mail,
or for the time spent accessing, reviewing, and discarding such
mail, or for both.
- (4) The receipt of a large number of unwanted messages also
decreases the convenience of electronic mail and creates a risk
that wanted electronic mail messages, both commercial and noncommercial,
will be lost, overlooked, or discarded amidst the larger volume
of unwanted messages, thus reducing the reliability and usefulness
of electronic mail to the recipient.
- (5) Some commercial electronic mail contains material that
many recipients may consider vulgar or pornographic in nature.
- (6) The growth in unsolicited commercial electronic mail imposes
significant monetary costs on providers of Internet access services,
businesses, and educational and nonprofit institutions that
carry and receive such mail, as there is a finite volume of
mail that such providers, businesses, and institutions can handle
without further investment in infrastructure.
- (7) Many senders of unsolicited commercial electronic mail
purposefully disguise the source of such mail.
- (8) Many senders of unsolicited commercial electronic mail
purposefully include misleading information in the messages’
subject lines in order to induce the recipients to view the
messages.
- (9) While some senders of commercial electronic mail messages
provide simple and reliable ways for recipients to reject (or
‘‘opt-out’’ of) receipt of commercial electronic mail from such
senders in the future, other senders provide no such ‘‘opt-out’’
mechanism, or refuse to honor the requests of recipients not
to receive electronic mail from such senders in the future,
or both.
- (10) Many senders of bulk unsolicited commercial electronic
mail use computer programs to gather large numbers of electronic
mail addresses on an automated basis from Internet websites
or online services where users must post their addresses in
order to make full use of the website or service.
- (11) Many States have enacted legislation intended to regulate
or reduce unsolicited commercial electronic mail, but these
statutes impose different standards and requirements. As a result,
they do not appear to have been successful in addressing the
problems associated with unsolicited commercial electronic mail,
in part because, since an electronic mail address does not specify
a geographic location, it can be extremely difficult for law-abiding
businesses to know with which of these disparate statutes they
are required to comply.
- (12) The problems associated with the rapid growth and abuse
of unsolicited commercial electronic mail cannot be solved by
Federal legislation alone. The development and adoption of technological
approaches and the pursuit of cooperative efforts with other
countries will be necessary as well.
In summing up the findings, the research showed that email is a
large part of our lives for both personal and commercial communications.
It is extremely convenient and efficient to use, but that efficient
convenience is threatened by the rise of unsolicited commercial
email. Unsolicited commercial email can cost both time and dollars
for those who receive it. The large volume of unsolicited commercial
email can cause wanted email to be overlooked, or lost, being deleted
with the unwanted email, reducing the reliability and usefulness
of electronic mail to the recipient. Some of this email is considered
vulgar or pornographic in nature to the recipients. The volume of
unsolicited commercial email creates additional costs for Internet
Service Providers, business, education, and non-profit groups that
receive such mail.
Many senders of unsolicited commercial email purposefully disguise
the source of the email, and purposefully include misleading information
in the subject line to entice the reader to open them. Some senders
refuse to offer an opt-out option, or do not honor requests for
recipients to opt-out. Many senders of unsolicited commercial email
use computer programs to search the web for email addresses found
on pages that require an email address for users to make full use
of a website or services. Many states have imposed legislation on
unsolicited commercial email, but there are no standardized requirements,
and that has lead to an inability to be successful in regulating
unsolicited commercial email. The Federal legislation alone will
not fix the problem. Technological approaches and joint ventures
with other countries will be required to solve the problem.
Back
to Table of Contents
Government
Decisions (Article Continues)
Canspam Compliance Company Interviews
Other Legal Articles:
Related E-Book Downloads
By James R. Sanders
January 06, 2003
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About the Author
James R. Sanders is the owner of Sanders
Consultation Group Plus. He has been a webmaster and website designer since
1997. He has also been involved in self employment ventures since 1992. He is
presently a contributing author of NewbieHangout,
and has been published through WebProNews
and 4Rankings.com.
His writing is targeted to webmasters, would be webmasters, website designers,
would be website designers, self employed, or those researching information
looking for solutions to questions associated with design, business operations,
and promotion today. His goal is to provide practical information based upon
his years of experience to help webmasters, website designers, and self employed
people achieve their goals in today's competitive global market. You can subscribe
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