Spam Law Feedback Sought

WASHINGTON -- The federal spam control law has been in effect nearly three months. If you think there's still room for improvement, the Federal Trade Commission wants to hear from you.

The FTC has opened a public comment period on spam regulations under the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) law that activated on January 1. Consumers have until April 12 to comment on its regulations. Comments are due by March 31 on the FTC's plan to implement a Do Not Spam registry.

Online Input

CAN-SPAM primarily addresses commercial e-mail, and charges the FTC with determining what constitutes commercial e-mail and deciding when an e-mail's primary purpose is commercial. The FTC is seeking consumer opinions to help it judge which of its regulations to alter and whether additional rules are needed.

"It does make sense for consumers to look at the overall issue and make a comment," says Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. "They're [the FTC] asking a lot of questions about what people think will be useful, so it's where the public comment period really does play a role in their decision making process."

The FTC has set up a Web-based form at Regulations.gov for people to offer comments. Consumers can answer a series of multiple-choice questions online and add their own remarks. It's not necessary to respond to every question.

CAN-SPAM also charges the FTC with studying how to implement a Do Not Spam registry, similar to the popular Do Not Call registry that took effect last year. The report on the feasibility of such a project is due to Congress this summer.

Topics for Comment

Another issue up for comment is whether to expand the ten-day time limit now available for consumers to opt out of receiving a company's e-mail. In addition, the FTC wants to clarify the definitions of e-mail categories exempt from CAN-SPAM's regulations. It even asks what kinds of violations should be punished under the law.

The CAN-SPAM act allows five categories of e-mail messages as "transactional or relationship"-related and doesn't police them as spam. So a message from Amazon.com confirming your order of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Season 5 or notification of an EBay transaction wouldn't be considered spam under the CAN-SPAM law, and you can't complain about getting the message. The FTC is authorized to expand or modify these definitions and is looking for comment on whether to consider changes.

Practices like e-mail address harvesting and dictionary attacks count as "aggravated violations" under CAN-SPAM, which "significantly increases the amount of damages a violator may be liable to pay" for such behavior, according to the FTC. The Commission can designate other practices as aggravated violations and is inviting the public to suggest any that should be added.

The FTC also is asking about whether people think post office boxes satisfy the requirement that commercial e-mail include a "valid physical postal address."

Fuel for Reports

An FTC representative says the commissioners will consider the public comments when preparing several reports due to Congress this year and next.

One of those reports, due soon, will offer recommendations for a system to reward people who report CAN-SPAM violations, CDT's Schwartz says.

"The system for rewarding ... I think is interesting," Schwartz says. "It will be interesting to hear what people have to say about what kind of reward structure--bounty-hunter structure--should be put in place." That report is due before Congress in mid-September.

Other pending reports include the FTC's plan for requiring commercial e-mail to be identifiable from its subject line, which is due next summer. A report on the overall effectiveness of the CAN-SPAM law is due to Congress in late 2005.