Spam - Unsolicited Commercial Email

Spam, What is it?

Receipt of an Unsolicited Commercial Email, UCE for short, otherwise referred to as Spam, that is defined as the following:

1. Receipt of unrequested marketing information or proposal via email from an entity with whom there has not been a prior business relationship.
2. Receipt of marketing information, proposal, or any other correspondence via email that is made to appear to be of a personal nature when there has not been a prior personal relationship with the sender.
3. Receipt of any correspondence via email requesting the recipient perform a specified action that may be contrary to the governing statutes where the recipient resides.
4. Receipt of any unrequested correspondence via email promoting that which is immoral, indecent, or illegal.

Our Proposal for Legally Acceptable UCE.

1. Header Fields: Any UCE using the following email header fields, referred to as To:, Cc:, or Bcc:, shall not contain in total combination of all three fields no more than one email address. The From: field and Reply-To: field shall both be from the same domain and be from the same domain as the Opt-Out Contacts information (see below).
2. Encoding Format: All UCE(s) shall be strictly in text format except for web page links. No other HTML encoding will be allowed.
3. Business Name: Every UCE shall contain the legal business name of the business on whose behalf the UCE is being sent. The business name shall appear exactly as it is written on the business license of said business. If an entity does not have in their possession a legal business license for the locality in which the business is physically located, then they must first obtain said license from the local licensing authority prior to submitting, or having submitted on their behalf, any UCE.
4. Pertinance: Any and all UCE's sent by, or on behalf of, the legally named business shall pertain specifically only to that for which the said business is legally licensed.
5. Contact Name: Every UCE must contain the contact name of a permanant employee or company executive of the business on whose behalf the UCE is sent. That means this person cannot be:
1. An outside contractor.
2. A temporary employee, whether hired directly for such purpose, or through an employment agency.>
3. A probationary employee.
6. Phone Number: Every UCE must contain the telephone number of the business on whose behalf the UCE is being sent. That telephone number shall be the regular primary number of said business. If said business also has an additional 1-800 order number, then that number shall also be included in the UCE. Every number listed shall be available to the recipient for the purpose of opting out of further email solicitations. If a caller reaches an automated telephone response system, then the option to opt-out of any further solicitations shall be at the very top level of the menu system. When the opt-out function is selected, no further menus shall be presented other than allowing the caller to return to the top level.
7. Street Address: Every UCE must contain the street address of the physical location of the business on whose behalf a UCE is being sent. Because businesses located in rural parts of the USA may not have a street address available, the following exceptions may apply only if absolutely no street address is available:
1. The business is located in a rural township in which there is no mail delivery even though street addresses have been assigned, in this case both the street address and post office box number must be included in the UCE. If no street address is legally available, then the post office box number alone will suffice.
2. The business is located in a rural area where only a Route number and Box number are available as assigned by the serving post office.
3. The business is located in a rural area where only general delivery is available from the serving post office.
8. For any of the above mentioned exceptions to be valid, the said business must be physically located in the area served by that post office.
9. Opt-Out Contacts: Every UCE shall contain a valid and permanent email address to which the recipient may reply to opt-out of any further solicitations. Every UCE shall also contain a valid and permanent web site address at which the recipient may opt-out of any further solicitations. The email address domain shall be the same as the web site address domain name of the business on whose behalf the UCE is sent.
10. Opt-Out Requests: Every opt-out request shall processed and completed within 24 hours. The recipients email address shall be removed from any email lists available to the sender of the UCE, or email lists belonging to the business on whose behalf the UCE was sent. The receipients email address shall not be placed on any other email lists by the sender of the UCE, or by the business on whose behalf the UCE was sent, whether that placement would be voluntary or for enumeration.
11. Origin Concealment: The falsifying of any email headers for the purpose of avoiding criminal or civil liability shall be considered fraud. If the fraudulent headers represent another individual or entity, whether intentionally or not, and said individual or entity suffers any harm to their reputation, suffers any disruption to their business, or suffers any monetary loss as a result of the falsified headers, the sender of the UCE shall also be charged with slander, and the sender of the UCE shall also be charged with identity theft which under current U.S. Code is a felony.
    (USC18-T47-S1028)
12. Penalties: The penalties for sending unlawful UCE(s), defined as not complying with the above proposal, shall be $100 for each and every unlawful UCE. If charges of slander or identity theft can be applied, then the sender of the unlawful UCE(s) will also pay those penalties as determined by an adjudicating authority. The sender of the unlawful UCE(s) will also be held liable for any applicable civil penalties as determined by an adjudicating authority on behalf of the recipients of unlawful UCE(s), and/or, any contractual penalties as described in the sevice provisions of the entity providing Internet access and/or email service to the sender of the unlawful UCE(s).

Your comments are welcome.