Interview With Congressional Spam Foe

gabe writes: "Smart Computing has an interview with U.S. Rep. Gene Green (D, Tex.), a leading proponent of anti-spam legislation. The interview focuses on the provisions of his two congressional bills (warts and all) and on his motivations for fighting spam." Politics on all other issues aside, I think Green has a position on spam that equals or tops nearly any I've seen from a politician.

Comments

Will this stop spam?

[tsarina]

Even if the spammer does put an address, etc., like Green's asking, he's still are able to send buttloads of spam. All you can do is complain, really. If the spammer doesn't have an address, etc. on it, it's illegal, but that absence and other spammer tactics means that it would be harder to track the spammer down and prosecute them. And would the DoJ be too concerned with going after spammers with more pressing issues at hand (Sept. 11, DMCA havoc, etc.)?

I applaud Congressman Green, for he does seem to be fairly tech-literate and reasonable. I just worry his anti-spam bill may be toothless. But at least he understands some of the issues around the tech world. Maybe he could do something about the DMCA next....

No, but...

[Sloppy]

Even if the spammer does put an address, etc., like Green's asking, he's still are able to send buttloads of spam. All you can do is complain, really.

If we ass/u/me that spammers will obey the law, it lets you do one other thing too: filter. If Joe Schmoe, law-obiding spammer, starts putting "From Joe Schmoe's Spam Shack" in everything he sends, then you can block everything he sends. Yeah, I know, I know, the blocking is after he's already consumed your bandwidth. Still better than the current situation, though, where every spam Joe Schmoe sends might have no regexps in common.

I think bills like this may be a good start. It's still somewhat spam-friendly and "opt out" but still tightens things a little bit, without getting (too far?) into 1st Ammendment territory, etc so it won't be terribly controversial. Most of the criticism I see here, is that the bill doesn't go far enough.

We can take a mile later, but let's grab this first inch first, provided there isn't any poison in it (i.e. it's all forward w/out any consessions). I wish the story had the bill's text so it would be easy to make sure.