Unsolicited email is a big problem, as anyone who’s ever had an email account can attest to. For this reason, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was enacted by the United States Congress, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was given the power to enforce it. One of the main focuses of the act is also one of its most controversial aspects: the issue of “consent.”

The concept of consent when it comes to an individual receiving unsolicited bulk email is somewhat vague in the CAN-SPAM legislation. This has led its detractors—in particular, those who feel the language of the bill wasn’t written strongly enough to adequately address the issue of email marketing spam—to assign it with the derisive nickname of The “You Can Spam” Act.

On the whole, most legitimate email marketers have taken the provisions laid out by the CAN-SPAM act seriously. Yet there are still others, purveyors of email marketing spam, who have taken advantage of the unclear language of the act with respect to opt-out marketing. This is the practice of requiring email recipients to take the further step of opting out of an email campaign in order to be removed from a mailing list.

The prevailing school of thought among email marketers who do not wish to incur a backlash is clear: if you are attempting to grow your mailing list organically, the last thing that you should do is practice opt-out marketing. Regardless of how this practice may grow a marketing list, the possible repercussions and negative word of mouth that a company receives could prove disastrous to its ultimate aims.