Are you seeing more SPAM than ever?

Are you getting more SPAM than ever or is it my imagination?  The Federal Trade Commission enforces the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM).  But not really.  They collect complaints and those complaints are used by law enforcement agencies all over the world. It collects the information in what they refer to as the Consumer Sentinel which gathers information along with other data contributors like the Better Business World, US Postal Service, The National Fraud Center, The Identity Theft Assistance Center and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

Click here to file a complaint.

Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000, so non-compliance can be costly. But following the law isn’t complicated. Here’s a rundown of CAN-SPAM’s main requirements:

1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
3. Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
4. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.

CAN-SPAM; A refresher

Have you noticed a surge in SPAM?  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003. But not really.  It merely collects complaints which are then used by criminal and civil law enforcement authorities worldwide. You may file a complaint with the FTC by clicking this link.

Each separate email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $16,000, so non-compliance can be costly. But following the law isn’t complicated. Here’s a rundown of CAN-SPAM’s main requirements:

1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
3. Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
4. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.

 

What is a TRIF?

TRIF; trĭf, -noun (origin: 1175–1225; (n.) ME tru(f)fle idle talk, deceit < OF, var. of truf(f)e mocker)

1) A mammal like creature which would fly if it could. But can only fly a few feet at a time – basically jumping from point to point. Usually hides in cave-like dwellings for much of the day. Feeds on sweet objects that present themselves without hunt or chase. 2) A simulator, one who sets forth a claim, especially a claimant to a throne.

But really, it represents the three aspects of TRI, design, build and support. Just like constructing a building, you have a design-build team that takes your ideas, hopes, wishes and dreams and brings them into reality. Then a support team takes over to make sure the building stands tall and strong. Our team of experts works in the same way to create an application that fulfills your desires, performs as expected and we stand behind that application with dedicated support. That’s what TRIF stands for. Send an email to info@trif.com if you would like more information.

Virtual Art - Is It Real?

Is it really art if it wasn’t created in 3-dimensions? Is it any the less creative? Creating art virtually or otherwise is all about what the minds eye can do with the tools and canvas provided.

The inset pictures a creation of pottery which I suspect many would purchase at Pier One given the opportunity. Alas, it was created virtually with an amazing pottery creation tool on an iPad. This Halloween surprise was created by an esteemed artist using an iPad application called let’s create Pottery written by company based in Poland called Infinite Dreams. The application is a clever combination of tools for artistically creating pottery and a community web portal that allows the sharing of the creations so that members of the community can review the works of others.

So click on the pumpkin and take a look at the 200+ original works of art brought to us by the artist who created this piece and feel free to scan the gallery of the 16,875+ creations from other artists around the world.

So is it art if it wasn’t created in 3-dimensions? Of course it is. Is it any less creative? Absolutely not. It requires the same instinct, eye, talent, dedication, expertise and mastering the available materials and tools. See for yourself.