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

Identifying Violations of the CANSPAM Act of 2003
Prohibition Against Predatory and Abusive Commercial Email - The Meat of the CANSPAM Act of 2003 and what Congress is Trying to Regulate

This pertains to Chapter 47 of title 18 Section 1037. Fraud and related activity in connection with electronic mail. This section has been added to the title, and is addressed to circumstances pertaining to fraud. It applies to things affecting interstate or foreign commerce, falsifying header information or using computers without authorization to send email through either actual physical means or through programs placed on protected computers. It also applies to situations of identity theft and using mail accounts without the owner's authorization to send bulk unsolicited commercial email. It also takes into consideration the possibility of a single person using false information to obtain multiple email addresses or domains with the intention of sending bulk unsolicited commercial email. The section copied and pasted from the act follows.

IN GENERAL.-Whoever, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly-

1. accesses a protected computer without authorization, and intentionally initiates the transmission of multiple commercial electronic mail messages from or through such computer,
2. uses a protected computer to relay or retransmit multiple commercial electronic mail messages, with the intent to deceive or mislead recipients, or any Internet access service, as to the origin of such messages,
3. materially falsifies header information in multiple commercial electronic mail messages and intentionally initiates the transmission of such messages,
4. registers, using information that materially falsifies the identity of the actual registrant, for five or more electronic mail accounts or online user accounts or two or more domain names, and intentionally initiates the transmission of multiple commercial electronic mail messages from any combination of such accounts or domain names, or
5. falsely represents oneself to be the registrant or the legitimate successor in interest to the registrant of 5 or more Internet Protocol addresses, and intentionally initiates the transmission of multiple commercial electronic mail messages from such addresses, or conspires to do so, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).

You are also at risk should you initiate practices that use software to harvest email addresses from websites, or artificially generate email addresses to send bulk unsolicited commercial email. You are also at risk if you had knowledge of these things, and initiated or helped to initiate emails generated from these practices. If the emails generated are deemed fraudulent, or were used for identity theft, obscenity, child pornography, and the sexual exploitation of children, if such offenses involved the sending of large quantities of electronic mail, then you are looking at additional problems. These are all noted in the act.

It also goes on to discuss the "Sense of Congress". They feel that "Spam has become the method of choice for those who distribute pornography, perpetrate fraudulent schemes, and introduce viruses, worms, and Trojan horses into personal and business computer systems", and "The Department of Justice should use all existing law enforcement tools to investigate and prosecute those who send bulk commercial e-mail to facilitate the commission of Federal crimes".

I am not going to go into punishments at this time. I will later go over the wide range of punishments that can befall the person that chooses to disregard this act. To protect yourself from this section of the bill, and any other, just be honest. When registering an email or domain with the intention of using it for commercial email purposes, use real contact information for yourself. Don't gain unauthorized use of other computers and systems to send email in violation of this act. Don't hack into systems and place your own scripts to send out email in violation of this act. Keep your trojan horses to yourself and use acceptable practices to gain email addresses and put in the hard work required to gain trust in your readers. Then you can send them all the email you want without worrying about getting into trouble.

From my experience with internet marketing and email marketing, it is far better to send a couple hundred emails to a few trusting readers than to send billions of emails to untrusting readers. Why you might ask? Simple. It costs much less for one. If you don't know someone, are you likely to buy from him or her? It is the "trust building" that makes people click on your links or programs. It doesn't matter if it is on a website, or in an email. What do you do when you they bombard you with a bunch of email? If you're like me, either you block the IP, or you delete it at the very least. However, when you receive email from someone you know, what do you do with it? You open it right? That's what I do. So then, doesn't it make more sense to do the work and gain the trust? You'll get much more targeted response out of your email list if you do. You'll also limit the possibilities of getting yourself into trouble with the CANSPAM Act of 2003.

Other Protections for Users of Commercial Electronic Email - Requirements for Email Falling Under the CANSPAM Act of 2003.

Here we will get into the actual requirements of the act. I'll start out with the act section copied and pasted directly from the act itself, and then we'll discuss what the sections mean. I will break the following areas down because of their length. Indented texts are directly copied from the Act. The section is as follows:

(a) REQUIREMENTS FOR TRANSMISSION OF MESSAGES.-

(1) PROHIBITION OF FALSE OR MISLEADING TRANSMISSION INFORMATION.-It is unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission, to a protected computer, of a commercial electronic mail message, or a transactional or relationship message, that contains, or is accompanied by, header information that is materially false or materially misleading. For purposes of this paragraph-

(A) header information that is technically accurate but includes an originating electronic mail address, domain name, or Internet Protocol address the access to which for purposes of initiating the message was obtained by means of false or fraudulent pretenses or representations shall be considered materially misleading;

(B) a "from" line (the line identifying or purporting to identify a person initiating the message) that accurately identifies any person who initiated the message shall not be considered materially false or materially misleading; and

(C) header information shall be considered materially misleading if it fails to identify accurately a protected computer used to initiate the message because the person initiating the message knowingly uses another protected computer to relay or retransmit the message for purposes of disguising its origin.

Bottom line on this section pertains to the header information generated by all email you send. It should identify you properly without being edited or hidden in any way. It also pertains to obtaining email accounts through fraudulent means, or for fraudulent purposes. It also includes editing header information, or any of the things mentioned in this paragraph, to disguise or hide the information passed by the email header and from line.

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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. 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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