Stone: The President's E-mail Does Not Comply With CAN-SPAM

Marc Cenedella posted a copy of a Bush Administration email newsletter to show that it failed to conform to the Can-Spam Act's requirement to include a snail mail address. Email filtering companies of all stripes have been quick to release studies showing a very high non-compliance rate with the law, but this email shows one of the key bits of confusion: it's a stretch to call this email a "commercial electronic mail message."

Whether or not double-opt-in newsletters are considered to be spam or special dispensation is given to government agencies and non-profits seems to come down to the law's stated definition of just what a "commercial electronic mail message" is…

(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.

This suggests that newsletters that contain the phrase "You are subscribed to this publication as Address…", so long as their really is a pre-existing relationship, do not need to conform to the content provisions because the newsletters are not considered among the controlled types of emails.