U.S. Senate passes anti-spam measure

Reuters ^ | Thu 23 October, 2003 02:20 BST | Andy Sullivan

[yonif]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate has voted to outlaw deceptive "spam" e-mail, and set up a "do-not-spam" registry for those who do not want to receive unsolicited commercial e-mail.

Internet "spammers" who flood e-mail inboxes with pornography and get-rich-quick schemes could face jail time and million-dollar fines under the bill, which passed by a vote of 97 to 0.

The vote marks the first time the Senate has taken action against an online scourge that now accounts for 50 percent of all e-mail traffic, frustrating consumers and costing businesses billions of dollars in wasted bandwidth and lost productivity.

Similar legislation in the House of Representatives has stalled as lawmakers try to hammer out differences between two competing bills. The Bush Administration said it supported the bill.

Senators noted that spam has become a top constituent concern and could overwhelm the Internet if left unchecked.

"Every day the Senate delays, big-time spammers (get) another opportunity to crank up their operations to even more dizzying levels of volume," said Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, a sponsor of the bill.

"I don't go to a town hall meeting, I don't meet a friend who doesn't say, 'Take care of that spam,'" said Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, another bill sponsor.

The bill would not outlaw all unsolicited commercial e-mail, focusing instead on the fraudulent or deceptive messages estimated to make up two-thirds of all unsolicited commercial e-mail.

Marketers who falsify return addresses or routing information, hide their pitches behind misleading subject lines such as "Re: your request" or promote body-enhancement pills or other fraudulent products would face jail sentences of up to a year and fines of up to $1 million; repeat offenders could face jail terms of up to five years.

Marketers would have to label sexually explicit messages to allow users to filter them out.

The bill would also prohibit marketers from sending unsolicited messages to consumers who place their e-mail addresses on a "do-not-spam" registry, similar to the popular "do-not-call" anti-telemarketing measure launched earlier this month by the Federal Trade Commission.

Marketers could e-mail addresses not on the list until asked to stop.

Other common spammer tactics, such as hijacking users' identities, using multiple accounts to evade filters, and sending messages to millions of randomly generated e-mail addresses, would be outlawed as well.

State and federal law enforcers and Internet service providers such as EarthLink Inc. would be allowed to pursue spammers, but individual users could not sue directly.

More than half of U.S. states have passed anti-spam bills of their own, many of which set tougher regulations for marketers.

The bill would preempt most state laws, but would allow states to set higher penalties for deceptive or fraudulent activity if they wished.

[Numbers Guy]

Oh yeah, sign up your e-mail address for a do not spam list, then the spammers have your e-mail address for off-shore operations not subject to American law.

Congressmen are idiots.

[OldFriend]

What does it say about people who rush to get on massive government lists but scream about the Patriot Act taking away their civil liberties........

[I_love_weather]

Voted 97 to 0?

And some of these same people voted for babies to be torn about...or have their brains sucked out????????

Scary world we live in...

[browardchad]

Oh, geesh, not this garbage again. Now the media will crow about the problem being solved due to the intrepid idiots in the Senate saving the world for the terminally stupid.

[dmcnash]

So we know the intent of Congress vs spam, what are the unintended consequences?

[Bobby777]

HELLO SENATORS ... no "do not spam" list is necessary ... fine the company using the spam service $10 per unsolicited email ... for a company sending 8 million spams per day out of somebody's garage, it will get prohibitive real quick .. same with sole proprieterships ... give a 60-day grace period from Nov 1. ... then go get 'em Jan 1 ... (actually that's probably 61 days or so) ...

this will stop 90% of all spma ... in country or offshore if the company is American-based ... for other companies, blacklist their IP ...

[yonif]

unintended consequences

Spam companies moving offshore?

[Revolting cat!]

They're breaking out Russian Shampanskoye bottles in Nigeria tonight!

[Bobby777]

LOL ... hope they don't take the telemarketers with them ... 8)

[Cicero]

I'd be delighted if they outlaw span. But they should do it by criminalizing spam, not by compiling a list of email addresses.

[HAL9000]

Oh yeah, sign up your e-mail address for a do not spam list, then the spammers have your e-mail address for off-shore operations not subject to American law.

If an off-shore business is promoting a U.S.-based business, that business may be held accountable.

I think this legislation will help after a few of these spamming scumbags get prosecuted.

[JRandomFreeper]

The U.S. Senate has voted to outlaw deceptive "spam" e-mail,

All these years, all of those experts, and the d@mn politicians still don't understand that Arapanet (original name) was designed to survive a nuclear war. Much easier to subvert the intentions of congress than survive a nuclear war.

Someone should read (out loud, and slowly, while pointing at the pictures) 'Pandora's Box' to the confused politicians, and see if they can draw an analogy.

/john

[harpo11]

How about forwarding the spam mail to some criminal investigation unit in order to track down, arrest and fine the damn spammers. I've had it with paying for a email service only to be constantly harrassed by spammers. It is time for them to pay the price for their invasion of our privacy and clogging up computer space with unwanted email.

Actually, I wish that Bill Gates would just come up with some way to zing the spammers back which would fry their servers with their own spam.

[poet]

Come on, don't talk about our "conservative" Senate/House republicans like that!

For goodness sake, all they want is a mailing list so they can tab us on what we buy, etc., or have we forgotten that our "compassionate conservative" President wants to have a massive data-base so he can catch terrorists and he put a convicted felon in charge (Admiral Poindexter). Of course, locking down our borders with the National Guard is out of the question. And the beat goes on.

[xrp]

Not to mention that the legislative effect of the laws of the United States of America end at America's physical borders. There are no borders in the virtual landscape of the Internet.

If I were a spammer, I'd just relocate my spamming servers outside the USA and start target the tens of millions of American email addresses.

[xrp]

blacklist their IP

Hahahahaha...and shut down the Internet?

Spoofing...

Compromised systems...

Relaying...

[xrp]

Yes, I cannot wait to see when American law enforcement authorities travel overseas to Tonga or Nauru to capture these vile spammers and haul them back to the USA for trial and imprisonment.

[xrp]

How about if you just quit the Internet because the "unwanted email" is so offensive to you.

[TheEngineer]

Oh yeah, sign up your e-mail address for a do not spam list, then the spammers have your e-mail address for off-shore operations not subject to American law.

That was my first thought, also, about the stupidity of putting my email address on a public list.

I hate spam as much or more than most... But this problem won't get solved by govt-mandate. Private enterprise will perfect a solution, eventually. In the meantime, I use the spamcop.net service -- and it works fairly well.