Did you ever receive an email that contains language similar to the following:
This message is sent in full compliance of the new U.S. Federal e-mail bill S. 1618 Title III, Section 301, Paragraph (a)(2)(C)
This message cannot be considered SPAM as long as it includes:
1) Contact information, and
2) a way to be removed from future e-mailings.
Sounds like it’s nice, legal, and effective, isn’t it? There’s just one problem: There is no such law.
The “S.1618″ means that it was a bill presented before the U.S. Senate (some spammers misquote this as “S.1616″). According to this link, it was “A bill to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to improve the protection of consumers against “slamming” by telecommunications carriers, and for other purposes.”
A bill that was never passed, I might add — again, for the sake of the thick-headed spammer (if I understand correctly, it died a slow death in committee). So little bitty spammer, your little disclaimer is an outright lie. A wet paper bag would give you better legal protection from your spam activities.
You can read more about this at this Wikipedia entry.
So what is the law? Well, you really should check with your lawyer first, especially if you don’t live in the United States (please: NEVER base your business’ legal strategy on something you read on a blog post; this is just my ignorant, uneducated opinion, and insofar as accuracy goes, it ranks right up there with Alice In Wonderland in terms of historical accuracy…), but in the meantime, check out the FTC’s CAN-SPAM web page.
In this case, the message contains a deceptive and misleading subject because it advertises “in-demand software”. Here’s a clue: if the software were “in demand”, you wouldn’t have to advertise it via unsolicited email. Say “bye-bye” to any potential CAN-SPAM protection (we won’t even mention the other violations).
Besides, a legitimate, perfectly legal email sender wouldn’t have to go to such great extremes to advertise the fact that the message is in compliance with non-existent laws, would s/he? 
So before you send out a commercial email, check with your lawyer — especially if you believe everything you were taught in that legal course you ordered from a spam email…
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