Senate Votes 97-0 To Restrict E-Mail Ads(first federal anti-spam)

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&ncid=1802&e=5&u=/washpost/20031023/ts_washpost/a3243_2003oct22

By Jonathan Krim, Washington Post Staff Writer

The Senate approved the nation's first federal anti-spam legislation last night after reaching a compromise that also opens the door to a national no-spam registry similar to the do-not-call list for telemarketers.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), was approved 97 to 0. It targets the most unsavory senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail by prohibiting messages that peddle financial scams, fraudulent body-enhancement products and pornography.


The legislation also draws on amendments from Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) that would criminalize the techniques used by spammers to thwart detection -- disguising identities, masking the locations of computers used to send junk e-mail and automating spam attacks.<snip>

The bill would preempt all state anti-spam laws, some of which are tougher than the Burns-Wyden bill. And it would prohibit private lawsuits against spammers, allowing suits only by providers of e-mail accounts, such as Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news), Microsoft Corp., EarthLink Inc. and America Online Inc., all of which also market to their own members.


But after months of negotiations, the bill now includes a provision, supported by some opponents of spam, that directs the Federal Trade Commission to come up with a plan for a no-spam registry.<snip>

[goobergunch]

1. This is S. 877, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.877.ES:

[TahitiNut]

2. Thu Oct 23, 3:11 PM ET - Too old for LBN.