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| House Subcommittee Pushes Anti-Spam Bill Forward |
March 21, 2001 |
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By Brian Krebs, Newsbytes
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A.,
A House Energy & Commerce subcommittee today passed legislation that would allow Internet service providers (ISPs) and consumers to go after senders of unsolicited e-mail, more commonly known as "spam."
In a voice vote, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet approved a substitute amendment to H.R. 718, the "Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Act," which makes it illegal for spammers to continue sending junk e-mail to someone after they`ve been explicitly asked to stop.
The bill also allows ISPs that have a junk e-mail policy to sue spammers $500 per message if they violate the policy. The legislation also requires that all spammed messages contain a valid return e-mail address and physical business address that recipients can use to opt out of getting further unsolicited messages.
The legislation approved today was actually a substitute provision offered by the bill`s authors, Reps. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., and Gene Green, D-Texas. One of the key provisions in the substitute amendment would prohibit class-action lawsuits by individuals, and instead empower state attorneys general to bring actions on behalf of consumers.
Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., objected to that provision, saying he was uncomfortable with giving such explicit authority to state attorneys general. Wilson noted that under the substitute bill, consumers still retain the right to file individual private lawsuits against repeat spammers.
"The objective here is not make another full employment for trial lawyers bill," Green told Newsbytes following the markup. "But we`re going to sit down with him and see what we can work out."
Other additions in the substitute amendment include a change to the provision requiring ISPs to let their customers opt out of getting junk e-mail if the ISP profits from allowing it into their system. That change would force consumers with more than one e-mail address per ISP to alert the provider of each individual e-mail address to be blocked.
The subcommittee`s passage of the bill comes as Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Conrad Burns, R-Mont., is preparing to introduce his own anti-spam legislation. While the Wilson-Green spam bill passed the House in 427-1 vote last year, the bill was referred to the Senate, where it sat and subsequently died in committee.
Wilson said she`d had staff level discussions with the Senate subcommittee, and that this year`s strategy would be to push the bill through both houses early in the session.
"It made it through (the House) last year fairly late, in July," Wilson said. "So we want to get it done early, get it to the Senate side and go to conference as soon as possible."
A Burns spokesperson said the senator hopes to introduce his legislation sometime this week, and may have draft language ready as early as today.
Last week, Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., introduced a bill that promises criminal penalties for Internet users who falsify or "spoof" their e-mail addresses to send spam. Goodlatte`s bill sets a fine of $15,000 or $10 per e-mail violation, whichever is greater, for spammers who "spoof" their e-mail addresses, that is, make it appear that the unsolicited e-mail comes from someone else`s e-mail address.
Wilson said while last year`s spam bill did not consider the problem of fraud, the exclusion was intentional. But, she said, this year`s version incorporates most of the language in the Goodlatte bill.
"It just wasn`t an area we were familiar enough with to craft the law," Wilson said. "We`re working with his staff to make sure the bill we have is a solid bill with respect to fraud and that it`s based on his language." |
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