CANSPAM
"The Commission shall transmit to the Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation and the House of Representatives Committee on
Energy and Commerce--a report, within 18 months after the date of enactment
of this Act, that sets forth a plan for requiring commercial electronic
mail to be identifiable from its subject line, by means of compliance with
Internet Engineering Task Force Standards, the use of the characters `ADV'
in the subject line, or other comparable identifier, or an explanation of
any concerns the Commission has that cause the Commission to recommend
against the plan."
Is there a IETF standard for labelling commercial email?
If not, should somebody make one up - quickly?
First of all, the primary responsibility for drafting this is on the
FTC, not on the IETF. The requirement is that is must be compatible with
IETF standards, not that the IETF has to write standards for this. The
intent seems to be on the email standards, making sure that whatever
labeling scheme they come up with does not interfere with IETF
standards. Second, the Commission has the option of making the
recommendations againt the plan. Third, this is the IRTF and not the
IETF. While our work "feeds" into the IETF process, this may be an
effort done on the IETF side. Fourth, the FTC has 18 months to do this
so there is plenty of time. The FTC will decide how to interact with the
IETF/IRTF.