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| Wilson unveils anti-spam measure |
June 19, 2003 |
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U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, twice set back in her effort to get e-mail spam restrictions through Congress, is trying again, this time with a bill she says has more teeth than one offered by two key Republican congressmen.
Wilson, an Albuquerque Republican, and Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, on Wednesday introduced legislation for a third time that would give consumers a way to opt-out of most unsolicited commercial e-mail, and give the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, state attorneys general and Internet service providers enforcement tools.
Wilson`s key allies and cosponsors in the effort are Democrats - Green, and Reps. John Conyers and John Dingell of Michigan, who are the ranking minority members of the House Judiciary, and Energy and Commerce committees, respectively. The bill would have to pass through those committees. Wilson is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
The Republican chairmen of the two committees, Judiciary`s Billy Tauzin of Louisiana and Energy and Commerce`s F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, aren`t in step with Wilson, having introduced a spam bill May 22 that competes with the Wilson-Green Anti-Spam Act.
Wilson said Tauzin and Sensenbrenner`s bill "had too many loopholes."
"We worked with them for over a month on a bill, but their definitions were too weak. It wasn`t tough enough," she said. "I told them I couldn`t support that."
Wilson said the competing bill has too many exceptions to the definition of unsolicited commercial e-mail, and doesn`t have enforcement provisions that are strong enough.
"There would be ways around the definition - that something isn`t really unsolicited or isn`t really commercial," she said.
Wilson said it wasn`t awkward to split with the Republican committee chairmen. "I was pretty straight about it," she said. "This is a consumer issue, and this bill has some teeth."
Wilson said there are 10 Republican cosponsors of her bill, and it has drawn support from heavy hitters in the business community, including Microsoft and America Online.
"At first I thought our bill would be an alternative, but we may end up having the votes, which I didn`t expect," she said. "We`re continuing to build momentum."
Wilson said she has persisted in her anti-spam efforts because the flood of e-mails touting get-rich-quick schemes, loan programs, dating services and pornographic materials only gets worse, and many of the recipients are children and teens.
"It`s gotten way out of hand, and more and more people are just sick of it," Wilson said. "It`s affecting commerce on the Internet. People are reluctant to check their in-boxes."
She said that, as a parent, she`s particularly offended by sexually explicit e-mail. "Some estimate that more than a third or more of junk e-mail is pornographic," Wilson said. "Parents are helpless to stop the junk from entering their home. We have the right to control regular mail, or if somebody calls home at supper time. We don`t have that right with junk mail that comes into the e-mail box. We should have the right to say no."
Cosponsor Green said spam "isn`t a partisan issue."
"We need to attack the problem of billions of deceptive, often pornographic, e-mails together," he said.
Wilson and Green introduced anti-spam legislation in Congress in 2000. It passed the House 427-1, but stalled in the Senate. They introduced similar legislation in early 2001 with 50 cosponsors. It was slated for floor debate on Sept. 12, 2001. The bill was lost in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Wilson said she`s optimistic some sort of anti-spam legislation will pass this year. She said the measures in her bill would override state laws. About 23 states have passed legislation dealing with spam e-mail.
"This should be federal law," she said.
She said federal legislation should be effective against the problem, unlike spam-blocking technology that hasn`t worked.
"The pressure is increasing because the problem is overwhelming legitimate users of the Internet," she said. "I like e-mail. It used to be a pleasure to sign on in the morning and check messages and hear from people. But now it doesn`t feel so great."
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WILSON`S BILL
Here are key provisions of an anti-spam bill introduced in Congress on Wednesday by Republican Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico and Democratic Rep. Gene Green of Texas.
Opt-out: Consumers could opt-out of all commercial e-mail from any given company. Commercial e-mail would be required to have an identifier that the message is an advertisement or solicitation, notice of the opportunity to opt-out, a return e-mail address or Web site through which the recipient can opt-out and the physical street address of the sender.
Prompt action: Companies would have to comply with an opt-out request within 10 days. The request would be valid for five years.
No fraud: Companies would be prohibited from sending e-mail with fraudulent or misleading header information. The act would keep consumers from having to view sexually explicit e-mail by requiring senders to provide adequate notice and not have consumers view sexual content in order to opt-out.
Penalties: Attorneys general, ISPs, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission would have authority to enforce the act. They could seek remedies including injunctions and damages. The act would provide for criminal penalties of up to two years in prison and/or $250,000 for companies that continuously violate certain key provisions, including those prohibiting fraudulent e-mail and protecting consumers against sexually oriented messages. |
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