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

(4) PROHIBITION OF TRANSMISSION OF COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL AFTER OBJECTION.-

(A) IN GENERAL.-If a recipient makes a request using a mechanism provided pursuant to paragraph (3) not to receive some or any commercial electronic mail messages from such sender, then it is unlawful-

(i) for the sender to initiate the transmission to the recipient, more than 10 business days after the receipt of such request, of a commercial electronic mail message that falls within the scope of the request;

(ii) for any person acting on behalf of the sender to initiate the transmission to the recipient, more than 10 business days after the receipt of such request, of a commercial electronic mail message with actual knowledge, or knowledge fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances, that such message falls within the scope of the request;

(iii) for any person acting on behalf of the sender to assist in initiating the transmission to the recipient, through the provision or selection of addresses to which the message will be sent, of a commercial electronic mail message with actual knowledge, or knowledge fairly implied on the basis of objective circumstances, that such message would violate clause (i) or (ii); or

(iv) for the sender, or any other person who knows that the recipient has made such a request, to sell, lease, exchange, or otherwise transfer or release the electronic mail address of the recipient (including through any transaction or other transfer involving mailing lists bearing the electronic mail address of the recipient) for any purpose other than compliance with this Act or other provision of law.

When you receive a request, you have 10 days to make sure you do not send any further email to the address. You may not have another party send them email on your behalf. You may not sell the address either once they request that the email address be removed from your list. You may not transfer the list leaving them on it. You may not lease the list leaving them on it. You may not transfer the list in any way leaving them on it after they request to be removed.

There is what seems to be a loophole here. Note the following words from the last copied paragraph above: "for any purpose other than compliance with this Act or other provision of law". Is this loophole for other government organizations and future plans on regulation? I think so. This little clause gives other government offices or appointed government firms the ability to request such a list to create their own kind of "do not call" email list.

For instance, let's say the commercial email originator removes the requested person from their mailing list, and places them into a "do not mail" list. Effectively, the government, at a future time, could request such lists from internet marketers as a means to establish a localized list that each marketer could use to scrub their own lists with. That's just my slant on the idea, I could be wrong.

(B) SUBSEQUENT AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT.-A prohibition in subparagraph (A) does not apply if there is affirmative consent by the recipient subsequent to the request under subparagraph (A).

For this paragraph, let's say that you received a request to remove the email from your list. However, before you received the request to remove them, they received another message from you asking them about opting into a different list that you have. Let's further say that this request got to you after the request to remove them did. You must remove them from the list they requested to be removed from, BUT you CAN add them into the new list they are requesting to be opted into. Let's further say that you send this email from the same server using the same email address. You are still complying with the law because you DID remove them from the list as they requested. You just added them to a different list that they requested to be added to.

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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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