Canada’s anti-spam legislation starts July 1

There are significant differences between Canada&#x27;s anti-spam law, CASL, and the U.S. CAN-SPAM. Key differences include:<p>1. CASL is opt-in, while CAN-SPAM is opt out;<p>2. Canada has an opt-in exception for existing business relationships that must be renewed every two years; and<p>3. CASL applies not only to email but to any electronic message, including a message sent via an installed program.<p>For more information, see: <a href="http://www.mcmillan.ca/Files/172403_Key%20Differences%20between%20US%20and%20Canadian%20Anti-Spam%20Laws.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mcmillan.ca&#x2F;Files&#x2F;172403_Key%20Differences%20betw...</a>

I believe it only applies to messages originating from a server located in Canada, in case anyone was wondering.<p>EDIT: I am indeed wrong! A non-Canadian company could hypothetically get in trouble for violating these rules. I wouldn&#x27;t expect that to happen often.<p>Also, thankfully, the Canadian rules seem pretty reasonable. Everyone probably should have to get explicit (more than a prechecked box) permission before adding you to a mailing list.

This law has been a giant PITA for me, only because there are a bunch of businesses running around trying to sell &quot;compliance&quot; services to my clients (who don&#x27;t need them, because why would I set them up with email marketing tools that aren&#x27;t opt-in only). Truth is that CASL isn&#x27;t very different from CAN-SPAM and so anyone who was already doing email marketing in the US is probably fine, but there seems to be a whole new cottage industry in Canada around scaring people into paying for protection from this (more or less completely sensible) new law.

Like most anti-spam legislation, this will both hurt legitimate businesses trying to send email to people they&#x27;ve done business with in the past, as well as do nothing to stop spam. Spammers are still going to spam. They don&#x27;t care about Canadian laws.

Seems like lead generation services are up shit creek. Glad I got out of that long ago. Is there any way for them to legally transfer the ability to email someone to another company?<p>If not, I assume users filling out the wrong country (so you can filter out Canadians from your lists, except those who put in the wrong country) doesn&#x27;t protect you either.

These new rules seem reasonable and no different from what businesses are&#x2F;should already be doing.<p>Does &quot;consent&quot; apply to websites which add an &quot;opt in&quot; checkbox but check it off by default and hope that nobody sees it?<p>This really irritates me and I would argue does <i>not</i> constitute my having given my consent to receive emails. That said, I don&#x27;t see an easy way to distinguish this kind of practice from a legitimate opt-in checkbox.

So if a user already signed up for a newsletter, via a subscribe form on a website, does this law affect subscribers of that list?