SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Council for Responsible E-mail has overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for self-regulatory guidelines in direct marketing e-mail. The Council, part of the Association for Interactive Media (AIM) is holding its annual meeting during the Net.Marketing Conference in Seattle. The guidelines consist of six separate resolutions to protect consumers and businesses alike.

"We are delighted that our membership has voted in harmony for these common-sense principles," said Ben Isaacson, AIM's executive director. "With the proliferation of e-mail at an all time high, we are eager to lead the way and implement self regulation to keep things under control. Email recipients need to have the ability to recognize the characteristics of responsible email marketing."

The six resolutions are designed to safeguard receivers from getting consistently unwanted, erroneously labeled, or intentionally deceptive e-mail. Each of the resolutions complements the next and should be taken into consideration as a collective entity. In full they are:

• The CRE agrees that marketers must not falsify the sender's domain name or use a non-responsive IP address without implied permission from the recipient or transferred permission from the marketer.

• The CRE agrees that marketers must not falsify the subject line to deviate and mislead readers from the content of the email message.

• The CRE agrees that all email marketing messages must either include an option for the recipient to unsubscribe from receiving future messages from that sender, list owner, or list manager, or valid and responsive contact information of the sender, list manager, or list owner.

• The CRE agrees that marketers must inform the respondent upon online collection of the email address for what marketing purpose the respondent's email address will be used. (Inform either online or via email.)

• The CRE agrees that marketers must not harvest email addresses with the intent to send bulk unsolicited commercial email without consumers' knowledge or consent. (Harvest is defined as compiling or stealing email addresses through anonymous collection procedures such as via a Web spider, through chat rooms, or other publicly displayed areas listing personal or business email addresses.)

• The CRE opposes sending bulk unsolicited commercial email to an email address without a prior business or personal relationship. (Business or personal relationship is defined as any previous correspondence, transaction activity, customer service activity, personalized marketing message, third party permission use, or proven offline contact.)

"These rules of basic marketing etiquette will be further refined and modified as the industry evolves," said Jay Schwedelson, corporate VP of Worldata Corp. and spokesperson for the CRE. "But we are making great headway by formulating these resolutions and are particularly gratified by the response of our members. All companies and organizations with integrity see the need to maintain industry standards for e-mail."

Isaacson likens the Council for Responsible Email's principles to the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) successful self-regulation of direct mail with self-imposed rules that protect businesses and consumers, and complements the DMA's established online privacy principles. "We are a proactive group, working together, for the betterment of interactive media. E-mail is a significant part of this universe and we understand and embrace the need to keep it safe and effective for all."

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