U.S. Congress Takes Aim At Spam

State & Federal governments work to ban junk email

U.S. House Committee Passes Anti-Spam Bill

The U.S. Congress moved one step closer to moderating the flood of spam ISPs and users receive every day.

The House Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection passed a bill today requiring spam to be identified as such and allowing individuals to sue spammers, according to a statement.

The bill, H.R. 3113, is titled 'Unsolicited Electronic Mail Act of 1999," and it requires and enacts other facets including:

1. Accurate return addresses must be on unsolicited commercial e-mail.
2. Spammers must stop after users request to be removed from the distribution list.
3. Email addresses can't be harvested from Internet registrars.
4. Internet service providers must protect their customers from spam if the service providers profit from allowing spam into their system.
5. Internet service providers may have a spam policy and sue spammers for $500 per message if they violate the policy.
6. The Federal Trade Commission may go after spammers who violate this law.

The bill is a combined effort from Reps. Heather Wilson (R-NM), Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) and Gene Green (R-TX). Wilson supported efforts to protect individual Internet customers; Miller backed the portion of the bill that allows Internet service providers to protect their property and customers in court; and Green supported stopping the use of false email addresses and routing information, the subcommittee said.

Comments made by Commerce Chairman Tom Bliley (R-VA) included:
"As this Committee well knows, the Internet has become a grand new frontier for commerce to thrive in the 21st Century. Businesses and consumers have learned to take advantage of the technological capabilities of this new electronic medium to increase convenience, competition, productivity and profit. As with traditional business models, marketing components are critically important to gaining and retaining customers -- particularly in the electronic world."

"Unwanted solicitations are not a product of the digital age. We have long dealt with junk mail, door to door salespeople, and unwanted telemarketers. For years this Committee has reviewed the regulation of such solicitations to consumers, and it does not surprise me that we continue to do so today, in the context of unsolicited commercial e-mail."

"I understand that Internet service providers -- or ISPs -- encounter many problems related to spamming. The excessive number of e-mails tie up network bandwidth and monopolize staff resources. ISPs also worry that their customers will blame them for the unwanted e-mails."

"I also understand that this unsolicited e-mail, commonly referred to as "spam," may indeed have a profound effect on the Internet and e-commerce. Consumers must spend time and often money to sift through dozens of e-mails and some consumers view spam as a privacy intrusion."

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updated March 23, 2000
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