The U.S. House of Representatives amended and approved anti-spam legislation Friday to target unsolicited commercial e-mail by prohibiting the sending of fraudulent and pornographic spam.
The measure includes provisions that provide consumers the right to opt out of all commercial emails and provide states and other regulatory governmental organizations with the necessary criminal and civic tools to prosecute spammers. It also fines spammers for each illegal spam message sent to consumers and requires special labels to pornographic emails.
“This legislation will reduce the spiraling prevalence of spam by giving consumers greater power to identify and reject spam,” said U.S. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. “In order to provide a credible deterrent to spammers, this legislation establishes enhanced criminal penalties for predatory spamming and provides law enforcement personnel strong authority to prosecute spammers whose electronic presence can shift with a keystroke.”
Sensenbrenner added that tough penalties would punish those who target pornographic e-mail to children.
Another provision to the bill includes the senate-passed “Do-Not-Spam” registry that works much like the Federal Trade Commission’s “Do-Not-Call” list targeting telemarketers. There is much debate of first amendment rights surrounding these lists.
FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris has opposed a no-spam registry, arguing that it would be unenforceable because spammers would ignore it. He added that it would be hard to keep the e-mail addresses secure, particularly because most spammers are based overseas.
Especially controversial is the fact that the federal bill would preempt all state anti-spam laws, some of which are tougher than the bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email, a grassroots organization that advocates and pushes for anti-spam legislation, said Saturday that it is disappointed with the House’s changes to the bill.
“This bill does not stop a single spam from being sent,” said coalition chairman Scott Hanzen Mueller in a statement. “It only makes that spam slightly more truthful. It also gives a federal stamp of approval for every legitimate marketer in the U.S. to start using unsolicited e-mail as a marketing tool.”
The coalition said the bill’s “weak” provisions limit enforcement “to overworked regulatory and law enforcement agencies.” They would rather give consumers the legal tools to protect their own inboxes, stopping marketing spam instead of availing it.
Mueller also said the coalition was disappointed that there were no public hearings concerning this legislation, which disregards consumer and business Internet interests.
“We have no faith that this law will significantly reduce the amount of spam that American Internet users receive,” Mueller said.
The House negotiated this agreement and made changes to the legislation, S.877, that the U.S. Senate passed on Oct. 22. It will now go back to the Senate for further consideration.
