FTC Looking to Fine-Tune CAN-SPAM

The aptly named CAN-SPAM act may be undergoing some revisions in the near future. As it stands, CAN-SPAM doesn't in fact say anyone can't spam, it just tells them how they can spam.

CAN-SPAM was made law in early 2004. Since then, there has been no strong consensus in the direction of unwanted email. Most sources seem to indicate that it's continued to grow, but perhaps at a slower pace. There's been no solid evidence of the law itself helping to fight spam.

CAN-SPAM's primary implications are that spammers need to include unsubscribe options, and provide their real physical address. Still, most senders of junk messages have ignored the act.

The possible revisions to the law mainly come in the form of changes in enforcement policy towards the spam program. The FTC may choose to interpret "persons" and "senders" in a different context to help take on spamming organizations as opposed to just individuals.

It may also attempt to enforce unsubscribe request in a more timely manner. Currently they allow a 10-day grace period for spammers to remove addresses from their lists. That may change to just 3-days. This seems somewhat irrelevant as spammers usually completely ignore these requests.

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