In order to understand what spam is NOT, we must first look at what spam actually is. The Federal Trade Commission provided us with a definition of Unsolicited Commercial Email. 

You can find that reference by clicking here

The Federal Trade Commissions Spam Law

"B. Concerns about Unsolicited Commercial Email:

Unsolicited commercial email -- "UCE," or "spam," in the online vernacular -- is any commercial electronic mail message sent, often in bulk, to a consumer without the consumer's prior request or consent. The very low cost of sending UCE differentiates it from other forms of unsolicited marketing, such as direct mail or out-bound telemarketing. Those marketing techniques, unlike UCE, impose costs on senders that may serve to limit their use.

"Generally, well-known manufacturers and sellers of consumer goods and services do not send UCE. Rather, such merchants use solicited email to give consumers information that they have requested about available products, services, and sales. For example, consumers may agree in advance to receive information about newly-published books on subjects of interest, online catalogues for products or services frequently purchased, or weekly emails about discounted airfares.

"These examples of bulk commercial email sent at the consumer's request demonstrate the value of consumer sovereignty to the growth of Internet commerce. Giving consumers the ability to choose the information they receive over the Internet -- known in the industry now as "permission-based" marketing -- seems likely to create more confidence in its content and in the sender.

"By no means is all UCE is fraudulent, but fraud operators, who are often among the first to exploit any technological innovation, have seized on the Internet's capacity to reach literally millions of consumers quickly and at a low cost through UCE. Not only are fraud operators able to reach millions of individuals with one message, but they can misuse the technology to conceal their identity. Many spam messages contain false information about the sender and where the message was routed from, making it nearly impossible to trace the UCE back to the actual sender. In the same vein, UCE messages also often contain misleading subject lines and extravagant earnings or performance claims about goods and services. These types of claims are the stock in trade of fraudulent schemes.

"Bulk UCE burdens (indeed, sometimes cripples) Internet service providers and frustrates their customers. The FTC's main concern with UCE, however, is its widespread use to disseminate false and misleading claims about products and services. The Commission believes the proliferation of deceptive bulk UCE on the Internet poses a threat to consumer confidence in online commerce and thus views the problem of deception as a significant issue in the debate over UCE."

Defining Commercial Message

In order for there to be a law, things have to be more specifically defined. In the new can-spam act of 2003, the FTC defined in legal form, what a commercial electronic message is. This is a significant step to providing a blue print that will no doubt mold the future of how bulk email is legally treated.

Reference: `Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003' bill:

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS:

In this Act:

(A) IN GENERAL- The term `commercial electronic mail message' means any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service (including content on an Internet website operated for a commercial purpose).

(B) TRANSACTIONAL OR RELATIONSHIP MESSAGES- The term `commercial electronic mail message' does not include a transactional or relationship message.

(also known as the can-spam act.)

So what is not spam?

Anything you desire as valuable information in some way that is useful to you. If you are interested in something and you decide you like it, then it is not spam for you. For example, what is spam for you today, may not be next month. If you just got a divorce and your x-wife (or husband) took your money, you need a cheap or easy way to get a divorce. Along comes a commercial message promoting down and dirty divorces. Ok, so now you may be interested.

So the real thing to understand is that the new law has not stipulated that a person is required to have opted-in. The law is however very specific on methods for Opting Out of a list and also the identification of the sender. This allows the user the ability to request being removed from the list and at the same time a valid sender that a complaint can be filed on.

We will cover more of this in future articles. Right now the jury is still out as to how well this new law has cut the spam problem down. At this point all I saw was a brief hic-up for about four days at the begining of the year. Other than that the spam volume has still remained fairly steady in my view.

Next time you get some email, if you don't want it, than for you it might be spam, however, this does not mean that the mailer sending it is breaking any laws. That of course is a topic for later debates!