March 24, 2004 Federal Trade Commission Office of the Secretary Room
159-H (Annex D) 600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20580 Re:
“CAN-SPAM Act Rulemaking, Project No. R411008,” 69 Federal Register 48,
11775-11782 (March 11, 2004) Dear Sir or Madam: On behalf of my
industry, I appreciate this opportunity to comment on the Federal Trade
Commission’s proposal on the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited
Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN SPAM Act). As a member of
Minneapolis and Minnesota Association of Realtors, we routinely use
e-mail to communicate with members and therefore have a significant
interest in the outcome of this rulemaking process. While our
association supports the Commission’s efforts to control fraudulent,
misleading and abusive unsolicited e-mails and e-mailing practices, we
are concerned that the establishment of a Do-Not-E-mail Registry
(“Registry”) will penalize trade associations, membership organizations,
and non-profits engaging in legitimate e-mail communications with
members and members ability to communicate with our clients. Our
association commonly uses e-mail to inform members about industry and
legislative developments as well as professional development courses,
new products or services. Such e-mails are an important part of our
service as an association and transmit information that is expected as a
benefit of membership. In addition to our concerns with communication
restrictions that would be imposed by a Do-Not-E-mail Registry, we are
also concerned with the significant threat to our members’ privacy that
could occur should the security of a Do-Not-E-mail Registry be breeched
by spammers. As many computer security experts have indicated, the
creation of an effective, secure and enforceable Do-Not-E-mail Registry
is not as simple a task as creating a Do-Not-Call Registry and
enforcement system. Unless carefully crafted and controlled, a
Do-Not-E-mail Registry system could be used or “gamed” to identify and
confirm the existence of legitimate e-mail addresses which then would be
subjected to abusive spam e-mail. It would be ironic if the very system
that is proposed to protect e-mail users were used to expose individuals
and firms to the very abuses that supporters of a Registry believe will
be eliminated by its creation. If the FTC endeavors to establish a
Do-Not-E-mail Registry, we believe much careful research and
beta-testing is required before any Registry is implemented so that it
not be a prime target for attacks by illegitimate spammers and
unscrupulous computer hackers. The imposition of additional and
significant Registry compliance obligations would be truly problematic
for our organization. Chris Allen Counselor Realty 952-475-9504
