• by Masha Geller , May 1, 2003

This week I decided it would be a good idea to go to the FTC Spam Forum in Washington, DC, and now that I've spent a day listening to senators, congressmen and other legislators talk about possible government intervention in the Spam crisis, I can honestly say the online industry is on its own when it comes to eradicating the problem. (For an unbiased account of the event, read the full story in today's MediaDailyNews.)

I think there will be little to no help coming from the feds on this one, folks, and here's why. Conference organizers lined up dozens of speakers to opine on the "toxic sea of spam" that has engulfed us, as one senator oh so eloquently put it. They invited lawyers, ISP representatives, anti-spam organizations and even some spammers themselves (as much fun as it was to see them torn to shreds, I'm not sure it helped the cause). They spent the day defining what spam is, debating the merits of opt-in vs. opt-out, filtering, labeling, black listing, email address harvesting and all those other things that all legitimate email marketers have figured out a long time ago. They even offered several demonstrations of how spammers really do what they do, from forging return addresses to harvesting lists (Alarmingly, the forum was open to the public and I wouldn't be surprised if someone with a garage full of fake personal enhancement products was taking notes in the back).

What they forgot to do, and this is the main reason I'm so disappointed, is in their quest for finding a way to save email from legitimate marketers from getting blocked along with email from the "unwashed masses," they forgot to ask the legitimate marketers for their opinion. There wasn't a single significant email marketer/advertiser on any of the panels. Several ISP representatives and email service providers bravely tried to represent the interests of their clients and advertisers, but not nearly enough to paint a true picture of the people who's businesses (and by extension lives) are most hurt by spam.

It's not surprising that the proposed federal anti-spam legislation is toothless. They only see one side of the issue - their own inbox. It's also a shame that state governments are fighting federal legislators on every proposal in fear of being preempted. Last time I checked, spam is a global problem, so the motto for everyone involved should be "cooperation."

Call me a skeptic, but I'm not hoping for much help from the Legislative Branch and continue to hold to my previously stated opinion that the online industry has to solve the spam problem on its own. Then again, maybe the second and third days of the forum will be better...