FC: Ray Everett-Church on House bill: It's actually pro-spam!

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:
"New House anti-spam bill features stiff criminal penalties"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-04769.html         

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From: "Ray Everett-Church" <ray () everett org>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: RE: New House anti-spam bill features stiff criminal penalties
Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 10:00:06 -0700

> http://news.com.com/2100-1025-1009467.html

This bill simply creates a set of baseline standards for truthfulness,
which if the spammer can meet, they can send as much spam as they wish.
This characteristic, common to all the leading spam bills, makes it a
gross misnomer to call them "anti-spam." "Anti-consumer," sure.
"Pro-spam," even. But not "anti-spam."

Any legislation that permits all of America's estimated 23 million small
businesses to legally send everyone at least one email cannot be
considered anti-spam. And any bill that limits a consumer's recourse to
clicking an opt-out link 23 million times isn't going to make our lives
any better. By limiting enforcement to Attorneys General or the FTC,
with no recourse for consumers, these bills virtually guarantee the
status quo: extremely limited enforcement. Even the FTC and state AGs
have said giving them more enforcement power without commensurate
resources is a waste of time.

This new bill mirrors the same opt-out approach taken in other
proposals, and in virtually all the existing state spam laws. Opt-out
laws have let the problem grow to the state it is today; no one in
Congress can supply an adequate explanation as to why opt-out at a
national level will make any difference. Opt-out in Korea has been an
unmitigated disaster and their legislature is rushing to repair the
global damage their opt-out law has done to their Internet economy.
California's opt-out law is being scrapped. And the European Union knew
better than to waste time with a discredited approach and went straight
to opt-in. Congress bears the burden of explaining to the American
people why these discredited approaches are the centerpiece of every
proposal they have presented.

Consumer and anti-spam groups have united in their opposition to these
bills. Please see http://www.cauce.org/news for the joint letter we sent
to all the committee chairmen and ranking members yesterday.

-Ray Everett-Church
Counsel, CAUCE 




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