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Senate Passes Anti-Spam Bill
House Must Now Approve Minor Changes
By Andy Sullivan, AP
WASHINGTON (Nov. 25) - The Senate signed off Tuesday on a bill that would outlaw the most annoying forms of junk e-mail and create a 'do not spam' registry, bringing the first national anti-spam law one step closer to reality.
Online marketers who flood e-mail in boxes with pornography and get-rich-quick schemes would face jail time and multimillion-dollar fines under the measure, which passed by a voice vote.
The bill has now passed both chambers of Congress, but the House of Representatives must still approve minor technical changes before sending it to the White House, Senate aides said. President Bush is expected to sign it into law by the end of the year.
'The big-time spammers are going to face some consequences when they flood our citizens with this trash and this pornography,' said Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, a bill sponsor.
Since the first spam bill was introduced in Congress in 1998, unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam, has grown from a nuisance to a plague that threatens to overwhelm the Internet's most popular means of communication.
Spam now makes up more than half of all e-mail, according to several surveys, and even online marketers have come to support some restrictions.
Lawmakers said spam has become a top constituent concern.
'We don't get too excited about doing anything here until the folks at home get excited, or enough of them, and they form a critical mass for us to take action,' said Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, who together with Wyden first introduced an anti-spam bill four years ago.
The bill would not outlaw all unsolicited commercial e-mail. Businesses could send messages to anyone with an e-mail address as long as they identified themselves clearly and honored consumer requests to leave them alone.
But the bill would ban a variety of favorite spammer tactics, such as using false return addresses. Pornographic e-mail would have to be clearly labeled, and commercial 'text messages' to cell phones would be prohibited unless users expressly permitted them.
The bill also would authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to set up a 'Do Not Spam' registry of Internet users who wish to receive no unsolicited e-mail at all, similar to the FTC's popular 'Do Not Call' list.
The FTC told Congress earlier this year that such a list would not be effective, as rogue spammers would simply ignore it.
'My answer to the FTC? Try it. We don't have anything better,' said New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, who pushed for inclusion of the no-spam list. 'It's not going to solve everything, but it's the best tool we have.'
Lawmakers faced additional pressure to put a national law into place after a tough anti-spam bill was approved by the California legislature earlier this year, causing online marketers to protest that they would have a hard time complying with a patchwork of state laws.
The bill approved by Congress would override 35 state anti-spam laws, some of which prohibit all unsolicited e-mail or allow consumers to sue spammers directly.
The national bill would prohibit consumer lawsuits but allow Internet service providers like EarthLink Inc. to sue for damages.
Many anti-spam activists say the bill is worse than none at all because it would encourage businesses to send more e-mail.
'Congress displayed their contempt for the states and their respect for corporate lobbyists,' said Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters Corp., a consulting firm that seeks to curb direct marketing. 'The punishment for this arrogance will fall on everyone in the form of more spam.'
11-25-03 14:40 EST
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