| Here are a few facts about
the law that you need to take into consideration, along with the
specifics of what you’ll have to do to keep your marketing legal.
If you’re a good eMail marketer, which I’m sure you are if you’re
reading this, not much of this will really apply to you. This
is not a legal interpretation, it is only my interpretation to
help you understand the legal mumbo jumbo.
Doc Phelps
The Law, In Brief.
CANSPAM does not make spam (the practice of sending
unsolicited eMails) illegal. It does have some specific
requirements for commercial eMails which we’ll get to briefly. The
new law covers all eMail for which the primary purpose is the
commercial advertisement or promotion of a product and/or service.
The law excludes eMails related to transactional relationships
such as billing statements, announcements of warranty information,
follow-ups to customer requests, etc. The new federal law
supercedes most state and local eMail laws, except those that
cover fraud and deception. This includes the controversial
California law.
The key rules you must follow to send legal eMail marketing
messages are:
Subject lines
must be descriptive in nature about the content of the eMail.
There are specific civil penalties about the use of deceptive
subject lines. Subject lines such as “news for a friend” would
be considered misleading.
the from line
should be from you or your business and not a sales pitch or
marketing message ("Set *FROM* eMail Parameters" - item #3 on
the left side of A1eBiz Admin Menu)
Use a reply
address that will be active for at least thirty days after
sending your eMail
the bill covers
all commercial eMail solicitations, both solicited and
unsolicited.
A conspicuously
displayed unsubscribe link must be included within every eMail
(this is done by the A1eBiz system)
Any unsubscribe
requests must be honored within ten days (PLEASE do this
IMMEDIATELY)
In the case of
unsolicited eMail, the marketer must label the eMail as an
advertisement. You may use the letters ADV in the subject line
but this particular identification is not required.
It is now
required that a valid physical postal address of the sender be
found within all eMails. (in eMails under CANSPAM) (this is done
by the A1eBiz system)
Related to
sexually oriented eMail, a message within the subject line or at
the top of the eMail must indicate the eMail’s sexual nature
(No sexually oriented materials will be tolerated by the A1eBiz
management!!)
The law also
specifically bans the practice of harvesting eMails through an
automated means. This would mean it’s now illegal to obtain
eMail addresses is to by crawling websites. This includes
purchasing harvested eMail addresses from someone else.
The new federal antispam legislation also has several
provisions related to the sending of eMails with false or
misleading headers, deceptive subject lines. But you wouldn’t do
that anyway, right?
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