Thanks to Christopher Knight of EzineArticles.com and Email Universe for alerting me to 4 new rules amended to the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 by the Federal Trade Commission.
These rules go into effect June 30, 2008. If you're an email marketer, you need to know about these rules and abide by them or you're putting yourself and your email list at risk. The last thing you want is to be labeled a spammer and get black-listed.
The 4 New CAN-SPAM Rules:
(1) People must be able to opt-out of a mailing in ONE SINGLE ACTION. This can include replying to the email or clicking through to a single web page.
(2) CAN-SPAM rules apply equally to everyone. That means anyone, including non-companies, can be liable for sending commercial email.
(3) It is acceptable to use a post office box or private mailbox ("PMB") as the physical address in your email messages. This was always a little unclear, so it's nice to know we are in compliance if we use a PMB or PO Box. Especially for those of us who work from home offices and don't want our home address tacked onto every email we send out.
(4) If your e-mailing includes advertisements from third party advertisers, you must also have an advertisement in the email (in which case you become responsible for processing opt-out requests) or all of the advertisers in the e-mailing are responsible for opt-out requests. This is known as the "Designated Sender" rule.
To learn more, I encourage you to read what Christopher Knight wrote on this topic at Email Universe.