On Wednesday, May 12, the Federal Trade Commission announced its latest NPRM regarding CAN-SPAM (that's Notice of Proposed Rule Making for those of us who don't live on Capitol Hill). The agency is proposing five clarifications or amendments to CAN-SPAM. The proposed rules include reducing the time senders have to honor opt-opts from 10 days to three, as well as clarifying what kind of postal information must be included in commercial email messages. See http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2005/05/canspamfrn.htm for the full list.

Basically, the FTC is making several proposals and soliciting feedback from the public and interested businesses. The agency is accepting comments through June 27, at which time it will begin working on final rules for the five topics.

In my view, all the proposed changes are fair and most likely will benefit legitimate email marketers. In fact, some of the proposed rules will reduce the heartburn our industry has suffered as we've tried our best to interpret some otherwise vague aspects of the original CAN-SPAM law.