Senate Committee Hopes To Can Spam
Source: TechWeb
Everybody (except spammers) hates spam—and finally government and business are both trying to do something about it.
This week’s Senate Commerce Committee approval of the Burns-Wyden “Can Spam Act” paves the way for the federal spammer-prosecution framework to be transmitted to the floor of the Senate. Containing an array of requirements—including legitimate response-addresses and mandatory identification of mass mailings as advertisements—the Act actually has teeth: punishments including jail time and fines as high as $25,000 a day.
Nearly simultaneously, the Federal Trade Commission approached Congress with a request for a dramatic broadening of its authority and power to go after spammers, in concert with law enforcement agencies where necessary.
Vendors are striking back as well. Within the past week Microsoft filed more than a dozen lawsuits aimed at spammers in the U.S. and the U.K., going after the sources of more than 2 billion alleged spam e-mails. This came even as one California legislator claimed Redmond was soft on spam.
