FTC Defines Spam

Iphtashu Fitz writes "The FTC has just issued its final report on how it will define Spam with regards to the federal CAN-SPAM act. According to the FTC, bulk e-mail is commercial if it includes advertising and promotion or if the subject line or beginning of the message would be reasonably considered to be advertising or promotion. This is very similar to the proposed rules that were announced back in August. The modified rules also deal with the issues of transactional messages (an e-mail regarding an order that also includes advertising) and relationship-based e-mail (messages about product updates, etc)."

Comments

Re:Great

[techno-vampire]

RTFA. If it *either* contains advertising *or* starts off as though it does, it's spam. Just putting a quotation in front of an ad doesn't make it no less of an ad and it's still spam.

Re:Great

[Andy_R]

It's spam if (to quote the FTC site) "a recipient reasonably interpreting the body of the message would likely conclude that the primary purpose of the message is commercial."

So this get-out doesn't apply, for which we can be thankful.

Re:Goodbye Yahoo Groups!

[yelvington]

Yahoo's business model for it's mailing list service (Yahoo Groups) is to attach ads to 'legitimate' mail it's users send.

These mails fit the new definition of spam: "bulk e-mail is commercial if it includes advertising and promotion ".

This is very wrong, and it's unfortunate that someone moderated it up. The rules clearly address "primary purpose." The FTC has no authority to ban sponsorship messages in Yahoo Groups emails, whose primary purpose is other than to deliver that advertising, and whose delivery was specifically requested by the recipient.

In addition, the headline on this slashdot posting is wrong, as is the summary. The FTC specifically says:

A few comments suggested definitions of the term "spam." In the CAN-SPAM Act,
Congress set forth a regulatory scheme built around the defined terms "commercial electronic
mail message" and "transactional or relationship message." Because this structure is provided in
the Act, it is unnecessary to define the term "spam" in the context of this rulemaking, and the
Commission declines to do so.

The FTC is not trying to keep advertising out of subscription-based services.

Re:Goodbye Yahoo Groups!

[yelvington]

Spam is wrong, and there is no exemption for spam sent via a subscription based service. What counts is if the recipient interprets it as spam.

Again, the FTC did not define "spam." It defined mail that can be considered "commercial" and therefore subject to the rules laid down by the CAN-SPAM act.

If an email is considered "commercial," it is not necessarily prohibited. You should read the entire act carefully. It doesn't prohibit transmission of emails that have been requested by the recipient, and when you subscribe to an email list, you are doing exactly that. The inclusion of advertising in the list may cause it to be subject to rules governing false headers, opt-out (unsubscribing), et cetera, that do not necessarily apply to purely private mail. But that should not create a problem for any competently run commercially backed list.

Re:Agreed

[cdrguru]

Understand that none of this is "spam". It is coming from a PC infected with one of 1,000s of script-kiddy worm programs that blasts out email by the thousands.

Since you can't just use the Outlook Express contacts list anymore, they scan the computer looking for email addresses. And they find them. And, anyone that ever been sent email or participated in an email discussion with that person gets a worm email.

And worse, everyone likes to get the latest information about "their account", so they open the attachments. And send more worm email around the world.