The CAN-SPAM Act was implemented in the United States to protect the privacy of consumers on January 1st 2004. CAN-SPAM is short for controlling the assault of non-solicited pornography and marketing act. The act prohibits the use of misleading to and fro headers in the email. Marketers are required to include their physical address in the email (this can be a registered office). There must also be an opt out link in every email, giving the consumer the ability to request removal from the senders list. The sender is required to remove the consumer from their database within 10 working days. Any email containing sexual content must be clearly identifiable before the recipient opens it. Marketers must obtain permission from the consumer in order to sell their email address.

Internet regulators are getting much tougher on marketers who violate these laws. They are imposing massive fines, and in some cases jail sentences of up to five years. These harsher regulations are to protect the users of the internet and mail services, who felt their privacy was being violated as their email continued to be clogged up with hundreds of unsolicited emails that were being randomly sent, with no particular target market in mind. As the use of email marketing continues to grow we can expect the regulations to be futhur enforced.

In addition, marketers who continue to send email marketing messages to consumers who have requested to be removed from their list may well decide to sue. This can be very scary. The law does however protect you also. You will not be found liable if a spammer has used your business as a cover, as long as you are unaware of the situation. You are also not liable if a virus is found in your marketing emails, just so long as you did not place it there, or know it was there, prior to sending out the emails.

The Coalition Against Unsolicited Emails is a non-profit organisation helping consumers to know their rights, to stop unfair email marketing practices, and also to provide businesses with answers to their questions before they engage in such activities. They also work closely with members of Congress to get laws passed that will be in the best interests of both consumers and business. Their website is a great place to get information www.cauce.org

Email marketing is a great opportunity to keep your business in the mind of the consumer, as well as encouraging them to make fresh purchases. However, it is important that you abide by the regulations and stay within the bounds of the law. Whilst most businesses do this, many don’t, others just simply are not educated and aware in the legislation, and so break the law unintentionally (no excuse in law). The Internet is a great place to get information regarding these laws and fair email practices. Check regularly for any updates. Keep within the legislation and your business will stand out and grow accordingly.

Now we are hearing of the latest tactic by John McCain, the very candidate who previously criticized this tactic in a previous election – robo calls. Robo calls are automated telephone calls that are negative attacks on the other candidate, only instead of airing these ads on television, they come by way of the telephone, usually when you are having dinner.

John McCain only days before he began using these robo calls, criticized the Democratic candidate for allegedly spending more money than any campaign in history on negative ads. Whether this claim is true or not in terms of money, it does not appear to be true in its inference that Obama is using a greater percentage of his ads on negative ads. That would be John McCain’s campaign.

In his latest tactic, John McCain has clearly crossed the line once again by using these automated calls to tell voters that Barack Obama allegedly voted against a bill that would give care to babies born alive after abortions, that Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington, that Obama places Hollywood above America, that he has worked closely with a terrorist, and that Obama lacks the judgment to lead the country.

Now add the inferences by the Republican party and/or their candidates, surrogates and the people introducing the candidates at rallies that the Democratic candidate is unpatriotic, has an arab sounding middle name, is a person to be scared of, or is a person who can’t be trusted, who has a hidden agenda, or who by virtue of an association with someone who did something when the candidate was eight years old, is a terrorist. Is it any wonder that a woman, at a rally like so many others for the Republicans where hate-filled shouts have been made in recent days, told John McCain she had read that Barack Obama was an Arab?

How, after all these years of improving race relations in this country, are these tactics and election advertisements being allowed to cause civil rights leaders and members of the public fear they are taking us back to times in this country that we thought were behind us? How can a candidate who claims he puts his country first make every attempt to divide this country? We all know that John McCain, who has a long and honorable past, is a better man than what we are seeing at his rallies or on one particular news station. Yet, we continue to see actions and comments at Republican rallies and now these robo calls that have now drawn the ire not just of civil rights activists but even the concern of other Republican Congressmen and Senators. Is it any wonder that Colin Powell, a Republican who served as Secretary of State, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and National Security Adviser under Republican Administrations has come out in support of Barack Obama and criticized the campaign tactics of John McCain, the latest of which is to infer that Obama’s policies are socialist.

In the last several elections, the focus of many of the most objectionable tactics were to pit religious voters against voters for whom religion was not an issue, based on perceived stances by one or the other candidate on religious issues. This type of insinuation has also been used this year against the democratic candidate, on the basis of an incorrect assumption by some and an intentional mischaracterization by others that since Obama was born in Kenya, he must be a Muslim.

More anger and consternation was brought to the surface this year with the strong showing by Hillary Clinton in the primaries and the selection of Sarah Palin as the vice presidential running mate of John McCain. With questions raised in particular toward Sarah Palin of whether she could be vice president and still be a good mother, women cried gender discrimination foul at the media.

Is it naive to ask why a candidate’s religion ever enter into the debate? If the candidate says he won’t let it interfere with his being fair and evenhanded, shouldn’t that be the end of it? Why should a candidate’s age be a problem if they are knowledgeable and not in bad health, if the Vice Presidential candidate is qualified as well? Why should a person’s gender ever be a problem? But to many voters, these aspects of a candidate are the most if not the only reason for how they will vote.

Perhaps we, as a nation, are forced to accept that at election time, some of people’s worst sides rise to the forefront in our election process, but shouldn’t we be better than that, and shouldn’t the persons we are asked to elect be better than that?

If the polls are any indication, this year we may just see a backlash against those who would make discriminatory inferences, and whose party would use false allegations as the basis for part of their campaigns. It may be naive, but it is hoped that based on a few comments made in the last few days by John McCain, before the election is over and with signs he is behind in the polls, John McCain will repudiate the statements made out of anger and fear by supporters at his rallies even more forcefully than in some earlier statements and again repeat that his supporters should be respectful of Barack Obama and his accomplishments. For at this time in our country’s history, our country can least afford to be torn apart by campaign strategies that have little to do with solving our country’s economic crisis.

If you have a civil rights or discrimination legal matter of any kind, we have the knowledge and resources to be your California Civil Rights Lawyers, and California Discrimination Attorneys. For this reason, be sure to hire a California law firm with civil rights lawyers who can represent you from Palm Springs, Malibu, Rancho Cucamonga, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, Corona del Mar, Anaheim, Irvine, La Jolla, El Cajon, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Temecula, Palm Desert, Yorba Linda, Carlsbad, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Westminster, and Murrieta, to Indian Wells and La Quinta.

If you have a civil rights, constitutional or discrimination legal matter of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com  and learn how we can assist you. You can also call us to speak directly to Sebastian Gibson on the phone about your legal matter.