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Yet Another Anti-Spam Bill In U.S. Senate
ackthpt writes "Another bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate, according to CNN/Technology, by Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Montana) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) Yahoo supports it, but DMA and AOL want to polish it a bit more. Version 0.9 beta would require States Attorney Generals to sue spammers on consumers behalf. (So long as I get some moola from these jerks, I'd be happy with that) My wishes are: craft a strong enough bill to stand 1st Amendment challenges and punish violators in the pocketbook enough and a few prosecutions will bring most of the domestic junk to a screeching halt. I tend to daydream about winning the lottery, too. Contact your Senators and Representative with your wishes, maybe this time something will get a move on."
How is this going to stop them in OTHER countries? How much spam is really sent from within the US of A?
The bill is S. 877. However it's not up on the Library of Congress's Thomas server yet. Usually takes a couple days for the text to show up.
ISPs are private companies, and they have clearly posted terms of service. An ISP has the right to terminate the service of any customer they don't like, whether they're spamming or not.
Yes, but I've seen some clueless ISP admins cave in to spammer whinings regarding nonexistent first amendment protections.
OK, so what is spam, legally?
Unsolicited bulk e-mail. E-mail sent en masse without the consent of the recipients on the mailing list.
Does it count as spam if it's sent unsolicited to 25,000 people but isn't actually advertising a product?
Yes.
Does it count as spam if it's only sent to 15 carefully selected people and it advertises a product related to their work?
That depends. If all 15 people specifically solicited information on a product such as the one being advertised, then it's probably okay. If, however, it was sent simply because the recipients 'might' have an interest because of their career, then it's spam.
Does it count as spam if it was sent to a list of people who signed up for a mailing list, even if some of them reported it as spam anyway?
If the recipients signed up for the mailing, then it's not spam. Still, mailing lists should be carefully run to prevent unauthorized subscriptions as they will be able to collect documentation to prove that their mailings were not spam.
What if they signed up for someone else's mailing list, and I bought the list from them?
Unless they specifically requested to be on YOUR mailing list, then it's spam. There have been quite a few companies lambasted for selling their e-mail lists and others lambasted for sending mail to purchased lists, and rightfully so.
A few are honest morons.
I've heard of exactly one "reformed" spammer. He was just ignorant, and once he realised the error of his ways he became an anti-spammer with an attitude. One out of the thousands out there is a very rare exception. It's safe to treat any spammer as a lying thief.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
This is exactly like a bill (Murkowski - the famous S.1618) that passed the Senate in 1998 that the spammers crowed over because it would allow them to go after spammers under restraint of trade laws. A copy of the original DEAA crowing is below. It would actually increase spam because it would be otherwise respectable companies spamming.
When Korea introduced similar legislation, Korean spam increased by a factor of 12 within three months. Most of that spam comes from otherwise respectable companies.
Even if this weren't going to result in more spam, how many people have enough time in the day to "opt-out" of all the spam they get now?