What the Federal Can-Spam Act
Of 2003 Means For Everybody
According to the Federal CAN-SPAM act, fraudulent and deceptive commercial email marketers are officially under attack. How will this new law affect Internet email marketing and your email account inbox? And, will the new rules imposed hamper the growth of Internet Entrepeneurs seeking to start what will be the giant Internet businesses of the future?
There are probably none of us who go to their email inboxes who haven't been appalled by the overwhelming numbers of email advertisements we sometimes have there. Most of us welcome the attempts by our Internet Service Providers to keep us informed, because we understand that is part of the service.
We, likewise, welcome and understand why we are getting Newsletters we have signed up for from others, and information we have requested. What we don't like, is a barrage of email advertising that we have not signed on for (SPAM). These pieces of true SPAM are unwanted by most of us. It's the true SPAMMERS that are addressed by the rules summarized below.
According to CAN-SPAM,
Advertising Emails MUST:
 Include a working Internet-based opt-out mechanism which will remain active for a minimum of 30 days after the emails are sent.
Email marketers and their bulk email systems or processes are required to impliment any unsubscribe requests within 10 days of the emailing.
The physical address of the company responsible for the email must be contained within the email.
Email marketers must include a clear and conspicuous announcement that the email is an advertisement or solicitation either in the subject line or within content of the email.
Emails containing sexually explicit material must be clearly labeled as such.
According to CAN-SPAM,
Advertising Emails MUST NOT:
Use a false or misleading "from" address
Use a subject line that masks the purpose of the email
Harvest email addresses off the Internet or use dictionary attacks to guess email addresses
Use open relays to send email
The CAN-SPAM legislation does not completely solve the problem, but, it is a first step toward giving the Federal government the authority, and the resources, to prosecute the most egregious spammers.
For the most part, the CAN-SPAM ACT supersedes state anti-spam legislation, which should make it easier to regulate email spammers. At least 37 states have conflicting anti-spam laws on the books. It's often impossible to determine which state is associated with any given email address. The federal CAN-SPAM Act is designed to create uniform rules.
The economy of the United States has to a large part been strong due to the ability for a company to market it's product creatively, with little limitation and small intervention by the government. Big companies have grown to that status partly because of Direct Mail Advertising through the postal system. E-mail marketing is a form of direct advertising by means of email instead of the U.S. Postal Service.
Many large Internet companies of today started small and became the successes they are because of no limitations on email marketing in the past. This atmosphere allowed these foprmerly small companies to persistently offer services and products through Direct E-Mail Advertising to the Millions of Inboxes out there.
The result of persistence, as in all advertising, created interest and, eventually, demand for the products and services offered by today's big name web sites. These formerly small-time, one-time start-up web sites, became household names as a result of this persistent invitation to try their wares.
There has been some fear that government regulation means the death of legitimate commercial email and create an era in which new web sites will never grow to the stature of their big-name counterparts. However, the CAN-SPAM Act may actually help legitimate email marketers messages be seen, by making fraudulent and deceptive email practices by others punishable by fines and jail time.
Perhaps the Can-Spam Act will discourage the truly offensive advertisers so there are fewer Direct E-Mail Advertising Messages in the Inboxes of the World. That way, email advertisers will not have to compete with the tons of repetitive emails, which causes legitimate advertisers messages to get lost in the crowd.
It's possible the Can-Spam Act could actually be a double blessing, instead of the hindrance to business growth new internet entrepeneurs fear. If the everyday variety of email users, like you and me, find fewer advertising emails in their inboxes, it is likely, logically, that they will pay more attention to the advertising emails they do receive.
With this development, fledgling web sites of today, who follow the new rules, could still have the opportunity to make their marks in the world too, like the big guys who didn't have today's rules imposed on their quest for growth. After all, every new web site starts out with the goal of being just like the big boys.
Perhaps, Can-Spam will open things up in a way that results in a scenario that allows newbies to become success stories, joining the ranks of the incredible successes many of the former little-guys currently enjoy, due in no small part to less stringent rules prevalent during their growth periods, not so long ago.
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