CAN-SPAM Guidance From NetCreations CEO Michael Mayor

[Garrett]

Anne Holland of MarketingSherpa hosted a webinar on the new CAN-SPAM act that included the FTC's Michael Goodman. One presenter was NetCreations CEO Michael Mayor. I called him today to get his take on the meeting and to see if the FTC had any new statements regarding their regulations.

"My take away," he told me, "was that there's a lot of vagueness in the law in terms of who the sender is and who the initiator is and what non commercial is versus commercial."

His number one take away though was that marketers should "always err on the side of caution," and "follow the guidelines whether you think you're above them or to the side of them or whatever."

"The guidelines don't really have a downside for the marketer," he told me, "they're asking you to be very truthful. They're not going to hurt you so why try to get around them?"

"The law is really not aimed at any one group, nor is it protecting any one group. The law is broad and far reaching."