Comments:

My take - for whatever it's worth is this. Government intrusion in this part of the private sector is a big mistake by the Government. I personally receive more than 200 pieces of SPAM per day. And I don't engage in spamming at all. So you'd think that I'd be in favor of this effort. But I am not. SPAM should be handled through technological innovation - not government's heavy hand. Having to worry about who I can send email to; who I can't send email to; whether some third party can get me in hot water; wondering if it's up to some bureaucrat's subjective interpretation (which might be influenced by, say, a case of indigestion one particular afternoon) - and I could go on - is more than I want to deal with. If someone sends me an email that contains an advertisement, and I send it to a friend, and that friend specifically said he didn't want email from the advertising company, I don't see how it's that company's fault that I sent my friend the email! Can someone please explain that to me? What this law seems to be trying to do is shut down all commerce through email. This is not what We The People have consented to have the Government do! Granted that there are a lot of whiners in this country. (Most unfortunate.) Why must the Government's heavy boot fall in sympathy with these overly shrill, weak kneed, busy-body, nothing-better-to-do, have-no-life-so-they-have- to-make-trouble-for-others people have so much sway with the Federal Government. I could understand this if huge numbers of people were getting, say, death threats, or messages of intimidation with respect to the vote in November. I might be able to understand it if there simply were NO reputable, hard-working, try-to-play-by-the-rules people involved in internet marketing. But I know too many people who DO play by the rules; who DON'T want to bother people unnecessarily, and who are simply trying to find alternative ways to make a living when the job market is not as robust as one might like. I'll tell you something... again, for whatever it is worth. I'd rather receive 100 times the spam I currently get (so that would be 20,000 pieces of spam a day) than have these Federal and state anti-spam laws, that will do NOTHING to reduce the spam in my inbox, but will have a chilling effect on industrious hard-working, honest, innovative marketers. If you think you're scoring points with the public, you might be in the short run. But just like the people at OSHA found out when they tried to tell people working at home that they were going to be subject to spot government inspections, you will be hearing HOWLS OF DISCONTENT AND DISMAY when the unintended consequences come home to roost. And especially when people find that their inboxes are stuffed with more SPAM than ever before (largely because of off-shore operations and people who play game and don't obey laws). I predict that CAN-SPAM will die off within a year. And all that money you folks are spending (my money, by the way! G-R-R-R-R) will have gone to waste. I am very upset, and wish I had some some real voice with the people who think that they're doing me any good. They're not. I am one VERY unhappy citizen. Again - for whatever it's worth. If you want to reach me, I'm not hard to find: Bal Simon h*REDACTED PERSONAL INFORMATION* P.S. - I really would like a response to this; though I KNOW I'll never get one. Very unhappy.