Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography
and Marketing Act of 2003
by Sanders Consultation Group Plus

CANSPAM Act of 2003 and How it Will Affect Our Marketing Campaigns

The penalties are stiff let me tell you. As a matter of fact, it provides for the same kind of procedures set forth in section 413 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 853), other than subsection (d) of that section, and in Rule 32.2 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. It further states the later "shall apply to all stages of a criminal forfeiture proceeding under this section." Sounds stiff to me, wouldn't you agree? If you've ever heard stories in the news of major controlled substance dealers being caught, and the assets forfeited, then you have a good idea of what I am talking about here.

In short, things they can take from a violator include assets purchased from the proceeds of violations, equipment, software, or technology used, or intended to be used for violation. They can also take any other property real or personal constituting or traceable to gross proceeds attained through the violation. In addition, that doesn't include the money or freedom you can loose in violating the act on one of the grander schemes. Fines can range anywhere from fine or imprisonment up to 1 year or both to fine or imprisonment not more than 5 years or both.

If you harvested email addresses from other websites, you are looking at enhanced sentencing. Randomly generating email addresses will get you the same, and knowing that the practices were being committed will also get you enhanced sentencing. Those convicted of other offenses, including offenses involving fraud, identity theft, obscenity, child pornography, and the sexual exploitation of children, if such offenses involved the sending of large quantities of electronic mail will also get enhanced sentencing. This all applies to fraudulent email practices, header manipulation, and falsification of information to obtain email addresses or domains.

All of the above is just the start of what can happen to you for violating the act. Now let's address the financial penalties for violating the act. Before we get into the figures, you need to understand what modifiers are used with those figures to come to the final amount you are charged. The first consideration is the number of offenses. How many times did you commit the violation? How many emails did you send? That amount ranges between $25.00 and $250.00. Remember, that is PER violation. Therefore, if they say you violated the act 1000 times, then that can cost you between $25,000.00 and $250,000.00. Depending on what you did, they will limit the total to $1,000,000.00 to $2,000,000.00.

Thus far, we haven't even looked at legal fees either. In the event you are found guilty, you will also be liable for legal fees. They also have considerations for aggravated damages. Aggravated damages can be added if you violated the act willfully and knowingly. There are also other situations that qualify your violation as aggravated in nature. If you are found guilty of aggravated damages, then they can charge you up to THREE TIMES the amount already mentioned above. Using the same 1000 emails as above, that would leave you financially responsible for $75,000.00 to $750,000.00 in aggravated damage fines. I recommend reviewing the act in whole to see what they are.

The court may also reduce the damages. In certain instances depending on your actions to prevent the violation, a court could decrease the amount of damages it awards. The instances include whether you established and implemented commercially reasonable practices and procedures designed to effectively prevent the violation, or if the violation occurred despite commercially reasonable efforts to maintain compliance.

Fail Safes Added to the Act - Added Means to Help Enforce CANSPAM Act of 2003
SEC. 11. IMPROVING ENFORCEMENT BY PROVIDING REWARDS FOR INFORMATION ABOUT VIOLATIONS; LABELING.

This section of the act enlists help from the public to enforce it. It also hands some of the power of enforcement over to those being violated with unsolicited commercial email, and places them in the front to help police email.

They are setting up the ability to accept complaints. While accepting the complaints, they will encourage people to make them. If you make a valid complaint about a violator of this act, you will be rewarded for it. Given our examples from the previous section, 1000 emails, a final charge of $75,000.00 to $750,000.00, that would mean a reward of $15,000.00 to $150,000.00. Not a bad day's work if you can find honest violators, is it?

Back to Table of Contents        Summing It All Up  (Article Continues)

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. 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 to his free newsletters at SCGP - Newsletter.

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