Canada Stop FISA Now Movement

The law (known as the Fighting Internet And Wirless Spam Act or FISA) severely restricts ANY Canadian business’ ability to use Email Marketing by requiring each business to ONLY email market to prospects who have given that business EXPLICIT WRITTEN PERMISSION to send that prospect marketing emails.

FISA means Canadian Businesses can no longer email market to prospective customers such as:

– contacts from your business card collection

– business cards you or your company collected at trade shows, networking events, or any other business or personal events you’ve ever attended where you’ve made contacts

– email databases of targeted prospects you’ve acquired from ANY source

– prospective customers you’ve found on popular online classifieds sites like Craig’s List or Kijiji or any other place on the internet where your prospective customers are present

Violating FISA can result in fines of upto $10 million for Canadian businesses.

If FISA is allowed to become an enforceable law, it will greatly restrict E-Commerce in Canada by limiting Canadian businesses’ Email Marketing capabilities greatly.

Worse yet, we predict FISA will make Canadian businesses reluctant to use Email Marketing at all for fear of incurring the extremely heavy fines associated with violating FISA.

As FISA stands, it DOES NOTHING for furthering the law’s stated goal: increasing Canadian consumer confidence in using E-Commerce as a means of conducting business transactions.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  It will NOT help reduce Phishing, Identity Theft or any other types of illegal activity regularly propagated through email.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  In fact, FISA is detrimental to this goal because it will discourage Canadian businesses from using Commercial Email Marketing.

What If FISA Becomes Enforceable Law in Canada?

Under FISA, Canadian consumers will be more likely to buy from American or International businesses who are relatively unrestricted in their Email Marketing practices.

THE SOLUTION

The United States has had the CAN-SPAM act in place since 2003.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  The CAN-SPAM act does not require American businesses to have EXPLICIT WRITTEN PERMISSION to send them marketing emails.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  We maintain the CAN-SPAM act is a just law for that should be mirrored in any Canadian law governing Commercial Email Marketing.

Repealing and/or Amending FISA to match the US’s CAN-SPAM Act will allow Canadian businesses to much more freely use Email Marketing for reaching prospective customers as US businesses currently can.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  It will also encourage more Canadian consumers to do business with Canadian businesses.

FISA should resemble the US’s CAN-SPAM act regulating commercial email.

FISA is already law but will not be enforced until estimated mid 2013.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Help us fight this law now by signing our petition before it’s too late!ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Visit http://stopfisanow.com to get involved.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  All comments posted by Canadian businesses and concerned citizens on our online petition will be automatically forwarded via email to several key politicians in Canada including Federal Minister of Industry Christian Paradis.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Make Your Voice Heard Today!