Slashdot Mirror
California Tries Spam Ban
Schlemphfer writes "Spammers have likely received their biggest setback yet, when California governor Gray Davis today signed a bill outlawing all unsolicited email sent to and from the state. Two things about this new law stand out: first, it puts the burden on senders to prove that they are sending solicited email. Second, it bans the entire practice of spamming, with no loopholes at all like allowing messages with ADV: in the subject. Keep in mind California has the world's fifth largest economy, and they are planning to enforce the law with fines amounting to $1000 per each piece of spam. This law could be ruinous to spammers when it takes effect January 1st."
What has to be a resident in the state to get the benefits of this bill? The human, or the mail server?
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
When the RIP Act was released in 2000 in the UK, it contained a lot of nasty legislation including some about encryption whereby the burden was placed on people to prove that they did not still have the key. This opened up the possibility of prosecution of innocent parties who could not prove their innocence (and were therefore guilty until proven innocent). While this law is notionally a good idea, does it not create the same problems of senders having to prove their mail was solicited or face being prosecuted? I am not advocating spam of course, just interested on the civil liberties side.