Anti-spam law enacted -- so what's all this junk in my in-box?Risks Digest 23.12

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 10:15:53 -0700
From: "NewsScan" <newsscan () newsscan com>
Subject: Anti-spam law enacted -- so what's all this junk in my in-box?

The new federal anti-spam law went into effect Jan. 1, but consumers report
their inboxes are more cluttered than ever -- what's going on? Critics say
the new law doesn't actually ban spam but rather provides guidelines for
sending junk e-mail legally. "Now we have a green light for what would come
to be called 'legal spam,'" says ePrivacy Group CEO Vincent Schiavone. John
Levine, a board member of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial
E-Mail, concurs: "Basically, it's a bill of rights for companies that want
to send junk e-mail." In addition, the federal law supercedes stricter laws
recently passed in several states, such as California. "Everyone was
planning for this California law, which was so draconian," says a California
lawyer who defends accused spammers. "Once the federal government passed the
federal law, everyone was kind of relieved." And while technology firms are
eagerly pursuing new ways of blocking spam, skeptics say the ultimate
solution won't be technological or legal, but will depend on developing more
savvy users. Mary Youngblood, abuse team manager at EarthLink, suggests
putting numbers in the middle of your e-mail address to make it more
difficult to guess and using a separate address for online shopping and
newsgroup postings.  [AP, Jan 11 2004; NewsScan Daily, 12 Jan 2004]
  http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040111/D800O3P00.html

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