--- http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-1024_3-5110622.html Congress Poised for Vote on Anti-Spam Bill Declan McCullagh Published: November 21, 2003 Congress has reached an agreement on antispam legislation and could vote on it as early as Friday afternoon, a move that would end more than six years of failed attempts to enact a federal law restricting unsolicited commercial e-mail. Negotiators from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives said Friday that the legislation was a "historic" accomplishment with support from key Democrats and Republicans in both chambers. "For the first time during the Internet-era, American consumers will have the ability to say no to spam," House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., said in a statement. [...] If the measure becomes law, certain forms of spam will be officially legalized. The final bill says spammers may send as many "commercial electronic mail messages" as they like--as long as the messages are obviously advertisements with a valid U.S. postal address or P.O. box and an unsubscribe link at the bottom. Junk e-mail essentially would be treated like junk postal mail, with nonfraudulent e-mail legalized until the recipient chooses to unsubscribe. [...] One hotly contested dispute has been resolved: The bill would pre-empt more restrictive state laws, including one that California enacted in September. That law established an opt-in standard and was scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1. With final passage of this bill, the core of California's law would never take effect. [...] --- A copy of the bill is here: http://news.com.com/pdf/ne/2003/FINALSPAM.pdf _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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