FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAN-SPAM Compliance and Spamming Behavior Not Correlated, Says Covert Study of Email Marketing Practices

TUCSON, Ariz. – (July 15, 2004) - Sixty-six percent of online organizations offering email newsletter subscriptions fail CAN-SPAM compliance tests, says a new study authored by permission email marketing advocate Mike Adams.

Yet only 0.4%—three of the 1,057 companies discreetly audited for the study—actually engage in persistent spamming behavior, according to the study. The research, entitled "2004 B2C CAN-SPAM Compliance Audit," is available for viewing or downloading at www.ArialSoftware.com.

The study was designed to determine the actual CAN-SPAM compliance of Fortune 500 firms and prominent online organizations. By covertly subscribing to more than one thousand email newsletters, then tracking and recording the characteristics of emails received, researchers were able to tally real-world statistics that have never before been published.

"The findings were surprising," says study author Mike Adams, who also serves as president/CEO of Arial Software, developers of permission email marketing software. "They clearly indicate that lack of CAN-SPAM compliance is not an indicator of spamming practices." In other words, the vast majority of firms that aren't compliant with federal anti-spam law aren't spamming in the first place.

Adams has been an outspoken critic of CAN-SPAM and frequently writes about anti-spam solutions at spam news website www.SpamAnatomy.com. He is also architect of the "Spam. Don't Buy It." public education campaign (www.SpamDontBuyIt.org). Adams believes that only a technical solution, not legislation, can stop spam, and he advocates widespread adoption of the Microsoft approach dubbed the "Puzzle Solution."

The Puzzle Solution requires email senders to "pay" for outbound emails with CPU cycles, effectively slowing outbound email servers to the point where high-volume spammers would be instantly put out of business. Details of the Puzzle Solution are available at http://www.spamanatomy.com/pressrelease01.shtml.

The "2004 B2C CAN-SPAM Compliance Audit" is available for downloading or viewing at http://www.ArialSoftware.com.

About Arial Software

Founded in 1993, Arial Software is widely considered the leading industry pioneer in permission email marketing software. The company’s products are used by thousands of businesses, non-profits, associations and other groups to compose and send email newsletters and personalized messages directly to subscribers, customers, prospects and members.

Arial Software’s mission is to be a universal provider of software tools to automate, personalize and measure meaningful B2C communications. Company information can be found at the Arial Software Press Center, http://www.arialsoftware.com/presscenter.htm

Contact: Steve Delgado, Media Relations, 1-520-615-1954, ext. 15.