Unanimous vote for CAN-SPAM Act
US Senate approves federal anti-spam legislation.
The US Senate has approved the first federal anti-spam legislation. The 'CAN-SPAM Act'
was approved by Senate in a unanimous 97-0 vote at the end of last
month. The bill requires bulk commercial emailers to include both opt out
provisions and valid email headers and subject lines in their
solicitations; failure to do so will carry civil and criminal penalties.
The bill provides for a maximum civil penalty of US$1.5 million for wilful
violation of the law and up to five years imprisonment for the use of
common spamming techniques.
More controversially, the bill calls for the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create a 'Do-Not-Spam' list, along
similar lines to its Do-Not-Call registry which it set up to shield
consumers from unwanted telemarketing communications. However, the idea of
a 'Do-Not-Spam' registry has not been welcomed by the FTC, since it does
not believe such a list can be secured satisfactorily. With the bill having
sailed through Senate, the focus now switches to the House of
Representatives - encouragingly, a statement issued by the White House
indicated that President Bush would sign an anti-spam bill.
1 November 2003
Tags:
spam
del.icio.us 
digg this
As expected, the annual VB100 test on Windows XP was an epic. A higher than usual pass rate was tempered by numerous stability issues with the products under test, prompting the unveiling of a new stability rating system. John Hawes has all the details.