Senate Commerce Committee Passes Anti-Spam Bill

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

24 June 2003

It emerged last week that the US Senate Commerce Committee has voted overwhelmingly to approve tough new anti-spam legislation.

In a meeting on Thursday, the Committee approved the Can Spam Act (S.877), sponsored by Senators Conrad Burns (R-Mont) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore), which requires that commercial e-mails present themselves as such, that they contain an opt-out provision (which must be honoured), and that they contain the actual physical address of the sender.

The bill also seeks to increase penalties for address harvesting by spammers.

Reporting on Thursday, the DC Internet news service revealed that Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla) proposed an amendment to the Act which would bring spammers soliciting money for illegal activity under the remit of the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). However, he later withdrew this amendment, presumably reassured by Senator Wyden's pledge that:

'The bill will get tougher as we go forward. We want to come down hard with hob-nail boots on big time spammers.'

Meanwhile, in the US House of Representatives last week, it emerged that a new anti-spam bill, tougher than the proposed legislation put forward last month by Representatives W.J. 'Billy' Tauzin (R-La) and F. James Sensenbrenner Jr (R-Wis), is in the pipeline.

According to reports, the new bill, put forward by Reps. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M) and Gene Green (D-Tex) will contain tougher enforcement powers for federal and state authorities against spammers, tighter restrictions on internet marketers, and an anti-pornography provision.

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