Don't look now but it looks like we might have a federal anti-spam law.
It isn't soup yet, but the Senate took a step toward it Tuesday when it approved by voice vote legislation that's
popularly known as "Can-Spam" but could also be known as the bill that outlaws spam but no one really thinks is going to do anything about the problem anytime soon.
The Senate's action
follows a 392-5 vote in the House of Representatives for a similar bill that would purportedly try to shut off the flood of e-mail. But since the House and Senate bills aren't the same, some more
work will be done before it can head to President Bush's desk. The House is going to have to vote again - Congressional sources expect that to happen next month - but Bush is expected to sign the
bill once it's final.
Changes in the Senate version include damages of up to $250 per spam e-mail with a cap of $2 million that can be tripled for continued violators. Spam that have false or
deceptive headers don't have any limit to the amount of damages they have to pay.
Existing portions of the bill require commercial e-mail senders to include a working opt-out mechanism,
enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general with help from Internet Service Providers, and penalties of up to five years in prison for practices like hacking into somebody
else's computer to send bulk spam, using open relays to send spam and sending it from someone else's Internet protocol addresses.
If it's approved, the bill will take effect Jan. 1.
-- Paul J. Gough