The Spam Bill (Finally something good from the CA pols)

[The Yosemite Bear]

Posted on Wed, Mar. 26, 2003

Spam bill clears its first hurdle
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SACRAMENTO - Internet users could sue e-mail marketing firms $500 for each piece of unsolicited advertising "spam" under a Senate bill that cleared its first legislative hurdle this week.

The bill, touted as a model to fight "offensive" unwanted e-mail nationally, passed the Senate's Business and Professions Committee on Monday despite widespread opposition from the nation's Internet establishment.

Representatives of America Online, Microsoft Corp. and the American Electronics Association said the bill, SB12, puts legitimate marketing in the same category as "bad actors" that send unsolicited pornography to millions of online accounts.

"AOL and Microsoft argue there is a place for legitimate unsolicited e-mail in the marketplace," said Mark Berejka, Microsoft's senior director of public policy. He and others argued the bill "unwittingly snares" valid businesses using a fast-emerging and inexpensive form of advertising.

Santa Monica attorney Bennet Kelley, who represents California e-mail marketing firms, told the committee, "This is cutting off your hand to deal with a hangnail."

But senators said most consumers don't want the e-mail, and argued it costs businesses billions of dollars in computer costs to receive it.

The bill, by Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Marina Del Rey, would make it illegal to sell lists of e-mail addresses to so-called "spammers," and allow Internet users to seek damages of $500 for each unwelcome solicitation they receive. It also allows judges to impose civil penalties of $250 per violation, money that would be used to fund high-tech crime task forces throughout California.

Bowen cited studies showing unwanted e-mail increased 86 percent last year, and polls saying most people want it outlawed. Another anti-spam bill by Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles, bypasses marketing firms to let consumers sue e-mail advertisers directly.

Bowen's bill now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee. It must pass the full Senate and Assembly by next year, and be signed by Gov. Gray Davis to become law.

From the Contra Costa times

[Kelly Antilles]

Thank god. I've been getting so much junk in my inbox lately, it's not funny. *sigh* And you know, most of them you can trace back to China.

[Queeb Salaron]

I didn't check my email over spring break, and came back to no less than 400 pieces of Spam. 400 x $500 = $200,000

I fully support this bill.

[RogueIce]

Representatives of America Online, Microsoft Corp. and the American Electronics Association said the bill, SB12, puts legitimate marketing in the same category as "bad actors" that send unsolicited pornography to millions of online accounts.

"AOL and Microsoft argue there is a place for legitimate unsolicited e-mail in the marketplace," said Mark Berejka, Microsoft's senior director of public policy. He and others argued the bill "unwittingly snares" valid businesses using a fast-emerging and inexpensive form of advertising.

Legitamate unsolicited e-mail?? I have never seen that before...all I've ever gotten are porn ads, penis/breast enlargers, weight loss pills, spy-cams, etc... The only half-way legit ones I get are those damn Newsletters I get from the mail service itself, or other things I've signed up for (Message Boards, free web sites, etc). Those annoy me too, but it's sort-of my own doing, so I can't complain. Unlike the penis enlargement ads...

But senators said most consumers don't want the e-mail, and argued it costs businesses billions of dollars in computer costs to receive it.

Don't know about the money bit, but I know I don't like unwanted ads cluttering my Inbox.

[The Yosemite Bear]

I hate them evil, porn ads, the ones I get through my IM really piss me off.