Congress finally poised to vote on anti-spam bill [sp]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-1024_3-5110622.html

Congress Poised for Vote on Anti-Spam Bill
Declan McCullagh
Published: November 21, 2003

Congress has reached an agreement on antispam legislation and could
vote on it as early as Friday afternoon, a move that would end more
than six years of failed attempts to enact a federal law restricting
unsolicited commercial e-mail.

Negotiators from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives said
Friday that the legislation was a "historic" accomplishment with
support from key Democrats and Republicans in both chambers. "For the
first time during the Internet-era, American consumers will have the
ability to say no to spam," House Energy and Commerce Committee
Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., said in a statement. [...]

If the measure becomes law, certain forms of spam will be officially
legalized. The final bill says spammers may send as many "commercial
electronic mail messages" as they like--as long as the messages are
obviously advertisements with a valid U.S. postal address or P.O. box
and an unsubscribe link at the bottom. Junk e-mail essentially would
be treated like junk postal mail, with nonfraudulent e-mail legalized
until the recipient chooses to unsubscribe. [...]

One hotly contested dispute has been resolved: The bill would pre-empt
more restrictive state laws, including one that California enacted in
September. That law established an opt-in standard and was scheduled
to take effect on Jan. 1. With final passage of this bill, the core of
California's law would never take effect. [...]

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A copy of the bill is here:
http://news.com.com/pdf/ne/2003/FINALSPAM.pdf
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