Scott “I don’t need money” Richter, notorious spammer, has filed for bankruptcy in the face of a lawsuit from Microsoft.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this week has announced the first big bust of spammers under the so-called “plain brown wrapper” provisions of CAN-SPAM. The plain brown wrapper rules require that, in addition to the CAN-SPAM requirements for commercial email to which all commercial emailers are subject, email which is…

Quick, what is the most hated form of spam? “Oh, that’s easy,” you say, “that has to be malicious, infectious spam. Or maybe that annoying Rolex spam we’ve seen so much of lately.” Bzzt! Wrong! According to an informal but interesting poll on the wildly popular Slashdot site, none of…

If you received spam today (and if you are reading this, and therefore by definition online, the odds are about 99.99% that you did), the odds are also very good that it came from the Good Old United States of America. Yes, that’s right, the spirit of entrepreneurism which made…

Earlier this week we told you that the former AOL employee who stole the email addresses of 92 million AOL users, and then sold them to a spammer for $100,000, was due in Federal court and was going to plead “guilty” to charges that he violated CAN-SPAM. It was anticipated…

[Reprinted with permission from the Institute for Spam and Internet Public Policy] 10 Things You Should Know About CAN-SPAM 1. CAN-SPAM applies only to commercial email. 2. CAN-SPAM applies to email for which a primary purpose is to feature your goods, services, or content even if you do not send…

It’s one of the most widely anticipated pronouncements from the Federal Trade Commission since the Paramount Antitrust Case. As they were charged with doing under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, the Federal Trade Commission has today announced the official definition of “Commercial Email” as it applies to CAN-SPAM. This is…

The Federal Trade Commission is accepting (indeed soliciting) comments from the public regarding certain aspects of CAN-SPAM, including the much discussed “primary purpose” definition. The gist of this aspect of the law is that if the primary purpose of an email is commercial, then it is governed by CAN-SPAM. If…

Guy Kawasaki’s newest book, “The Art of the Start: The Time-tested, Battle-hardened Guide For Anyone Starting Anything” was just released today, and it’s hot – even hotter than the flame which burns bright on its cover. While it’s a wonderful book for all sorts of reasons, and highly recommended reading…

The Internet Patrol is a big fan of that section of CAN-SPAM which allows for prosecution of the people who are advertising in spam, in addition to those who are sending the spam. We have long said that going after the advertisers makes a lot of sense, and is one…

Users of the “Did They Read It” (“DTRI”) service run their email to you through the DTRI server, where a web bug is embedded in the email. When you open the email to read it, the web bug reports back to DTRI that you have opened the email, and where, geographically, the IP address you are using is located.

We had a really proud moment here this week, when Senator John McCain said, during the Senate Commerce Committee Hearings on the effectiveness of CAN-SPAM to date, “If the FTC can’t find the spammers, it should do the next best thing: go after the businesses that knowingly hire spammers to promote their goods and services…” Senator McCain is referring to Section 6 of CAN-SPAM, which holds those who knowingly advertise in spam responsible just as if they had sent the spam themselves.

In a law rife with grey areas, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, one of the greyest is the requirements surrounding the handling of opt-outs, and the related creation of suppression (“do not email”) lists. This is a responsbility which falls squarely on the shoulders of the marketers..er, the postmaster..no, wait,…