Back in 2003, legislators in the United States sought to stem the flow of spam emails that was plaguing our over-belabored inboxes. Problem is, it really didn't help much. Spam comes from all over the world, and it's not stopping. But if you live and operate an online business in the United States, you're bound to follow the rule of the law.

"I'm just a one-person operation," you may be thinking. But even so, even if you're just starting out with list building, you have to remember that your'e still liable. One spam complaint could shut you down or worse. Though you're probably protected if you use an online autoresponder service, if you're handling mail on your own, there are some things you need to be aware of.

Here are some important parts of the law:

• It bans false or misleading header information. Your email's "From," "To," and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.

*You may not use misleading subject lines. You cannot deceive the recipient about what's inside the email.

• It requires that your email give recipients an opt-out method. You must provide a return email address or another Internet-based response mechanism that allows a recipient to ask you not to send future email messages to that email address, and you must honor the requests. You may create a "menu" of choices to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to end any commercial messages from the sender.

Any opt-out method used must be active for at least 30 days from the time you send the message, and you have 10 business days to remove people who asked to be removed from your list. You can't transfer your list to another person, and you can't sell it.

*You must identify your message as an advertisement and you have to include your physical mailing address.

Those are the general rules. But there are a couple of other things to consider. Never, ever buy lists of email addresses. Harvesting of addresses is also illegal, so don't do it. Set up a proper list building page that sends your subscribers' names and email addresses to an autoresponder that automatically confirms subscriptions. This "double opt-in" process is just safer. Nothing in the law says you have to do this, but it just makes things safer.

When you send out emails, be sure that you include a link for people to unsubscribe and your mailing address. If you use an autoresponder service, this is taken care of for you. If you're using your own email delivery program, then, it's your responsibility to follow the law. It's really not that complicated, and you won't enjoy the penalty if you're caught out of compliance. Each violation is subject to a $11,000 fine. So, if you sent to 100 people, you could be fined $1,100,000, and you could also go to jail. Is it really worth it?

Definitely not.