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The following quote
is from Senator Frank Murkowski, who has actually tried to pass
laws to prohibit bulk email without success:
"The
105th session of Congress has adjourned without passing any news
laws on this issue. Currently,
no specific federal statute exists that regulates junk email.
Prior to
adjournment, the Senate passed my legislation that would have
required online marketers to identify themselves accurately and to
honor consumer remove requests. The Senate language is contained
within Title III of S. 1618.
The House of
Representatives also passed legislation on unsolicited email. However,
it only urged industry self-regulation and contained no new laws
to control this practice.
I feel that self-regulation has been a failure and that new
laws are needed to control this practice. The House language is
contained within Title II of H.R. 3888.
I will continue to
work to control junk email. However, the fact that the House of
Representatives has gone on record opposing any new laws while the
Senate has chosen an opposite approach means that there is much to
be worked out between the two bodies during the next session of
Congress.
I regret
that in the meantime there will be no federal solution to this
problem. Since
junk email is an issue of interstate commerce, any
state law to address junk email may be held by federal courts to
be unconstitutional. I
will continue to work to see that junk email does not continue to
burden Internet users and service providers."
Senator
Frank Murkowski - 3/25/00
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Legal
Update 3/16/01:
The
newly created laws regarding bulk email in California and
Washington
state have both been
struck down in federal courts as being un-constitutional.
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SO, WHY ALL THE
CONTROVERSY?
You
are probably asking yourself, "What is all this talk I hear
of making bulk email illegal? Why is it so controversial?"
The reason it is so controversial is because the ISP's (internet
service providers) are mad because they cannot charge per piece
for bulk email, unlike the telephone companies can charge long
distance rates for unsolicited phone sales calls and the US Post
Office can for bulk mail. This makes the ISP's angry, and they in
turn incite a mob action type of attitude in others who look up to
these webmasters.
There
are so many people out there today looking for a cause, and
unfortunately a minority of them go to extremes. Not all postal
workers go "postal" and kill their fellow employees, not
all anti-abortionists kill abortion doctors, and so on. Along
these same lines, not all ISP's are enraged anti-spammers who
search the web looking to cause trouble for bulk emailers - but
there are a few out there. Many of these anti-spammer extremists
do not have regular jobs as the rest of us do, and they sit around
all day trying to chase down and hunt "spammers".
However, they are few and far betweeen, and do not pose a serious
threat to the professional bulk emailer. Every once in a while,
however, you may email one of these folks by mistake. They may
email your ISP (if they can get past our cloaking technology) and
you may lose a dial-up account here and there. It goes with the
turf. If you send out 200,000 emails and then lose a $9.95 ISP,
wasn't it worth it?
Think
about it. Why aren't these same anti-spammer extremists picketing
their local post office because of bulk mail, or trying to boycott
long distance companies for allowing unsolicited phone sales
calls? It's because they don't really understand why they are so
enraged. Like I said, some folks are just looking for a cause to
fight for, and these ISP's who are mad because they can't charge
for bulk email have an anti-spam bandwagon that a lot of these
people are jumping onto - and they don't even really know or
understand why! It's just a money thing. Period. If the ISP's
could charge for bulk email, no one would be any more angry than
they are about postal bulk mail or unsolicited phone sales calls.
As
far as the legal issues go, as long as you do not forge headers or
return addresses in your email messages you shouldn't have any
problems. We know of no one who has been sued or prosecuted for
bulk email, other than one or two huge corporations who were
convicted of sending out millions and millions of emails using
false and forged information.
*Note:
The content of this web page is provided for general informational
and reference purposes only and is not meant to constitute legal
advice or to be a substitute for seeking legal advice.
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