In September, 1996, Business Know-How conducted an Email 2000 survey in which we asked survey-takers to tell us if they thought there should be a law against junk email (unsolicited advertisements sent in electronic mail). The results of that survey showed a large majority of online service and Internet users were in favor of some kind of law being enacted to deal with spam.
Now, three bills designed to deal with the email spam problem have been introduced into congress.
One of the bills, called the Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Choice Act, was introduced into the Senate by Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-AK). This bill would require junk emailers to label their mail with the word Advertisement in the subject line, thus making recipients aware of the contents of the mail, so they could decide whether to open it or not. It would also require spammers to remove names from their mailing list within 48 hours of receiving a request and to include working return addresses in the email headers. Finally the bill would require online services and ISPs to put filtering software in place to permit ads to be screened out by those who wish to do so. However the bill would not prevent junk email from being sent, and therefore would do little to alleviate clogged email gateways.
The second bill introduced was in the House. It’s called The Netizens Protection Act of 1997, and was introduced by Rep Chris Smith, R-N.J. It would make unsolicited email advertisements unlawful by amending the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, which banned unsolicited junk faxes. It would require businesses to have a pre-existing business relationship with a mail recipient before sending unsolicited ads. Violators could be sued for actual damages or fined $500 per violation for sending junk email.
Targeted at get-rich-quick-schemes, ads for unproven medical remedies and "other unsavory solicitations," the bill would not effect any communication between businesses and their customers or friends and acquaintances.
The third bill, which is called the Electronic Mailbox Protection Act of 1997 was introduced by Senator Torricelli. It would make it illegal to send unsolcited bulk email from unregistered domains or fictitious email addresses to disguise the source of the email or prevent replies. It would also make it illegal to continue to send email when someone has requested their name be taken off a list or to distribute a list that contains names which have asked to be taken off the list. It would also make it illegal to "harvest" names from services whose rules forbid such practices or to ignore or circumvent other rules abot bulk email that have been established by a service.
We’d like to know what your feelings are now on the subject, and which of the three bills introduced into congress you think would be the best way to deal with the spam.
Please tell us by completing the form below. (To read more
detail about any of the bills, click on the bill's name in the
preceding text.)
Please note: This survey has been set up
to send your responses to us anonymously. When we publish the
results of our survey, we may include some of the comments we
receive. If you add comments and would like your name included if
we refer to your comments, please be sure to include your name in
the comments box. If you don't we have no way of knowing who you
are.