On Fri, 19 Dec 2003, Justin Mason wrote: > S877 is the CAN-SPAM act.
One of the interesting provisions of CAN-SPAM is that it distinguishes "commercial" email, but does not distinguish "bulk" email. That means that even single email messages between private parties must comply with the CAN-SPAM labeling requirements, whenever the "primary purpose" is "advertising or promotion" of a product or service. Too bad the bill doesn't define "primary purpose" or explain what "promotion" is. In theory, a message posted to this list that says "Wow, SpamAssassin is great, I think everyone should download it right now!" could be considered "promotional" and have to be labeled. (Note this doesn't mean subject-line labeling, but rather that the message contains a physical postal address and a clearly marked "internet-based" opt-out mechanism. Oh, and in the case of a list post, unsubscribe from the list isn't sufficient -- the mechanism has to allow you to tell the *original sender* to never send you another message again.) If you thought the automatic disclaimers appended by law firms et al. to all their email messages were getting out of hand, just wait for Jan. 1. The only good thing is that the FTC is empowered to modify all these rules and define some of the things that are undefined, so the situation may become clearer eventually. ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials. Become an expert in LINUX or just sharpen your skills. Sign up for IBM's Free Linux Tutorials. Learn everything from the bash shell to sys admin. Click now! http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1278&alloc_id=3371&op=click _______________________________________________ Spamassassin-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/spamassassin-talk
