Previous Politech message: "New House anti-spam bill features stiff criminal penalties" http://www.politechbot.com/p-04769.html --- From: "Ray Everett-Church" <rayat_private> To: <declanat_private> Subject: RE: New House anti-spam bill features stiff criminal penalties Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 10:00:06 -0700 > http://news.com.com/2100-1025-1009467.html This bill simply creates a set of baseline standards for truthfulness, which if the spammer can meet, they can send as much spam as they wish. This characteristic, common to all the leading spam bills, makes it a gross misnomer to call them "anti-spam." "Anti-consumer," sure. "Pro-spam," even. But not "anti-spam." Any legislation that permits all of America's estimated 23 million small businesses to legally send everyone at least one email cannot be considered anti-spam. And any bill that limits a consumer's recourse to clicking an opt-out link 23 million times isn't going to make our lives any better. By limiting enforcement to Attorneys General or the FTC, with no recourse for consumers, these bills virtually guarantee the status quo: extremely limited enforcement. Even the FTC and state AGs have said giving them more enforcement power without commensurate resources is a waste of time. This new bill mirrors the same opt-out approach taken in other proposals, and in virtually all the existing state spam laws. Opt-out laws have let the problem grow to the state it is today; no one in Congress can supply an adequate explanation as to why opt-out at a national level will make any difference. Opt-out in Korea has been an unmitigated disaster and their legislature is rushing to repair the global damage their opt-out law has done to their Internet economy. California's opt-out law is being scrapped. And the European Union knew better than to waste time with a discredited approach and went straight to opt-in. Congress bears the burden of explaining to the American people why these discredited approaches are the centerpiece of every proposal they have presented. Consumer and anti-spam groups have united in their opposition to these bills. Please see http://www.cauce.org/news for the joint letter we sent to all the committee chairmen and ranking members yesterday. -Ray Everett-Church Counsel, CAUCE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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