CAN-SPAM

CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003) is an act signed into U.S. law by President George W. Bush in 2003. It establishes the first national standards for the sending of commercial and unsolicited email, commonly known as spam.

Email users often complain of spam, which can include pornography, offers to buy and sell stock, and solicitations for money, scams and various other services. Often, these services do not even exist. Users deal with spam by using email filters in their email clients or in their web mail. Good spam filters keep out most, but sometimes not all, spam mail.

CAN-SPAM was enacted in response to the growing concern and frustration with spam. Detractors, however, criticize CAN-SPAM as being a weak law because it continues to allow marketers to send commercial unsolicited email as long as they adhere to conditions set forth in the law. These conditions include allowing users to opt out (unsubscribe), using a valid subject line and sender’s email address, and labeling sexually explicit material. If the email content contains a religious message or pertains to national security, it is exempt from these laws.

Users do not often read the fine print instructing them how to unsubscribe. Even if they do opt out, the marketers have 10 days to stop sending emails, but they do not have to remove the email address from their lists. Effectively, this means spammers can start sending these emails again after a certain period (currently set at 30 days).

However, CAN-SPAM does make it illegal to commit IP spoofing, Trojan horse or worm attacks, and to harvest email addresses.

Internet activists complain the act actually legitimizes spam instead of seeking to stop it.