CAN-SPAM stands for "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing." The act was put into place January 2004 to set out requirements for those sending out commercial emails, establish penalties for spammers, and give consumers the right to ask emailers to stop spamming them.

The law covers email that's primary purpose is to advertise or promote a product, service, or website. Personal emails and email updates and advertisements that have been consented to are not covered under this law. Also not covered are "transactional or relationship messages," which are emails that pertain to agreed-upon transactions or emails that update a customers in an existing business relationship. That is because these types of emails are not technically spam - they are a result of previous consent or a business relationship. However, if these types of emails contain false or misleading information they are in offense of the CAN-SPAM Act.

The CAN-SPAM Act is enforced by the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Department of Justice has authority to enforce its criminal sanctions. Other federal and state agencies can enforce the law in their jurisdictions, and internet service providers can also sue violators.

Requirements and Prohibitions of the CAN-SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act has four main provisions:

• False and misleading header information is banned - This means that an email's "From," "To" and routing information, including the originating domain name and address, must be accurate and identify the sender.
• Deceptive subject lines are prohibited - The subject line cannot mislead the receiver of the message to open it under false pretenses, thinking it's something else. The receiver must not be mislead as to the contents or subject matter of the email.
• Opt-out methods must be provided - A response mechanism must be provided for the receiver to opt-out of any future commercial messages from the sender. In addition, opt-out requests must be processed for at least 30 days after the initial commercial email was sent, and senders have 10 business days after an opt-out request to stop sending messages to that address. Messages cannot be sent to the opt-out requestor on behalf of the sender by any other entity.
• Commercial email must be identified as an advertisement and it must include the sender's valid physical postal address The receiver must be clearly informed that the message is an advertisement or solicitation, he must be told he can opt-out of future mailings, and a valid physical postal address must be included in the message.
• Receivers must be warned of sexually explicit material - For any message that contains sexually explicit material, the warning “SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT” must be contained in the subject line.

The FTC is also currently looking into establishing a National Do Not Email Registry that would prohibit senders of commercial messages from targeting anyone who puts themselves on the list.

Penalties for Violation of the CAN-SPAM Act

Violation of the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act are subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial emails are also subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising.

Additional fines are also charged to commercial emailers who break the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act and also:

• "Harvest" email addresses from websites or web services prohibiting the use of their directories for sending unsolicited mail
• Generate email addresses using the "dictionary attack" (combining names, numbers, and/or letters in multiple ways to come up with email addresses)
• Use automated ways to register for multiple accounts to send commercial email
• Relay messages through a computer or network without permission

Imprisonment is possible for commercial emailers who:

• Send commercial email through a computer they are not authorized to use for that purpose
• Relay or retransmit multiple messages to deceive recipients about the origin of a message
• Falsify header information
• Register for multiple email accounts or domain names with false identities
• Falsely represent themselves as owners of multiple IP addresses used to send commercial messages

Given the existence of the CAN-SPAM Act, it's important that you report spam in your inbox rather than just deleting it so that the spammers can be prosecuted and fined under the law. If we all do this, it can help reduce spam in the future.

Rate this blog

   Report Abuse

Comments

From apple apple at Wed Aug 25 2010 09:52:26 GMT 0800

xiaozhu Recently, men and women are looking for stylish tennis Puma Shoes due to the fashion style trends. If you are one of them, you may also choose Coach Purses as your favorite tennis shoes to add up to you shoes collection.If you want to spot one of the coach tennis Gucci Outlet, you can try to find it from coach barrett collection. You know that Puma Store is always producing the latest coach shoes from this collection. Coach Handbags barrett tennis shoes are very wonderful option to get as tennis shoes for men and women.You know that Cheap Gucci is offering great sport shoes for men and women. Coach tennis shoes come to rescue the people who love to wear coach shoes when they play the tennis.

-----------

From apple apple at Wed Aug 25 2010 09:52:26 GMT 0800

xiaozhu Recently, men and women are looking for stylish tennis Puma Shoes due to the fashion style trends. If you are one of them, you may also choose Coach Purses as your favorite tennis shoes to add up to you shoes collection.If you want to spot one of the coach tennis Gucci Outlet, you can try to find it from coach barrett collection. You know that Puma Store is always producing the latest coach shoes from this collection. Coach Handbags barrett tennis shoes are very wonderful option to get as tennis shoes for men and women.You know that Cheap Gucci is offering great sport shoes for men and women. Coach tennis shoes come to rescue the people who love to wear coach shoes when they play the tennis.

-----------

From apple apple at Wed Aug 25 2010 09:52:25 GMT 0800

xiaozhu Recently, men and women are looking for stylish tennis Puma Shoes due to the fashion style trends. If you are one of them, you may also choose Coach Purses as your favorite tennis shoes to add up to you shoes collection.If you want to spot one of the coach tennis Gucci Outlet, you can try to find it from coach barrett collection. You know that Puma Store is always producing the latest coach shoes from this collection. Coach Handbags barrett tennis shoes are very wonderful option to get as tennis shoes for men and women.You know that Cheap Gucci is offering great sport shoes for men and women. Coach tennis shoes come to rescue the people who love to wear coach shoes when they play the tennis.

-----------

From apple apple at Wed Aug 25 2010 09:52:22 GMT 0800

xiaozhu Recently, men and women are looking for stylish tennis Puma Shoes due to the fashion style trends. If you are one of them, you may also choose Coach Purses as your favorite tennis shoes to add up to you shoes collection.If you want to spot one of the coach tennis Gucci Outlet, you can try to find it from coach barrett collection. You know that Puma Store is always producing the latest coach shoes from this collection. Coach Handbags barrett tennis shoes are very wonderful option to get as tennis shoes for men and women.You know that Cheap Gucci is offering great sport shoes for men and women. Coach tennis shoes come to rescue the people who love to wear coach shoes when they play the tennis.

-----------

From dgff fdgfh at Tue Aug 03 09:53:58 2010

linda It's unfortunate that those who could best benefit from the Gucci Shoes Sale won't read it. They'll simply see it as an dunk low on a sacred icon. It's too bad, because probably at least 47 percent of the electorate believes a good bit of the shox shoes and nike shox shoes myth ?not a comforting thought. The author's Air Jordan Shoes and Air Jordans are reasonable look at the huge discrepancy between what Reagan supposedly did and his actual ugg classic boots. It is not Reagan bashing, though certainly some much-needed balance is achieved in assessing Michael Jordan Shoes's presidency. He is most assuredly correct to suggest that if we are to have a Coach Handbags at a bright future, we must, at the very least Cheap Jordans, move beyond myths. The book does tend to be a bit Cheap MBT Shoes and repetitious.

-----------

From Adi Adi at Fri Jan 21 2005 22:33:25 GMT 0500 (Pakistan Standard Time)

To make a stone tool, a "core" of hard dedicated servers stone with specific flaking properties (such as flint) was struck with a hammerstone. This flaking produced a sharp edge on the core stone as well as on the flakes, either of which could be used as tools, primarily in the form of choppers or virtual private servers scrapers.[18] These tools greatly aided the early humans in their hunter-gatherer lifestyle to perform a variety of tasks including butchering carcasses domain registration (and breaking bones to get at the marrow); chopping wood; cracking open nuts; skinning an animal for its hide; and even forming other tools out of softer search engine optimization materials such as bone and wood.[19]

-----------

From marry davidson at Fri Jan 08 2010 17:43:37 GMT 0500 (West Asia Standard Time)

Blogs are always a main source of getting accurate information and provide you the handy results; you can get instant and reliable information which surely helps you in any field of your concern. I am post graduate in IT and HR. These days I am doing preparation of different online certifications and I found [url= http://www.mcsaquestions.com] mcsa[/url] guide is the best helping source which is providing 100% authentic material. I also spend my extra time in surfing internet, listening music and playing games. After my exams I would like to join your group.

 

Regards

Marry Davidson          

-----------

From marry davidson at Fri Jan 08 2010 17:42:42 GMT 0500 (West Asia Standard Time)

Blogs are always a main source of getting accurate information and provide you the handy results; you can get instant and reliable information which surely helps you in any field of your concern. I am post graduate in IT and HR. These days I am doing preparation of different online certifications and I found <a href="http://www.cciecourses.com">ccie training</a> guide is the best helping source which is providing 100% authentic material. I also spend my extra time in surfing internet, listening music and playing games. After my exams I would like to join your group.

 

Regards

Marry Davidson          

-----------

---

Leave your comment(s) below: