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The U.S. Senate, by unanimous approval, gave final approval
to the CAN SPAM Act, following last weekend's overwhelming
vote on the landmark federal anti-spam bill by the U.S. House
of Representatives. If signed into law by President Bush,
the legislation would mark the first national attempt to put
a crimp on junk mail.
The bill, endorsed by Microsoft, would replace all state
anti-spam laws and levy fines and jail terms for offenders
who don't follow the rules enumerated in the law.
A 'do not spam' list is one of the possible methods being
suggested to the FTC. The problem being that off-shore spammers
would probably use such a list as a source of addresses for
their advertising or schemes.
After some minor differences are worked out between the,
already approved, House version and the Senate bill, it is
very likely that President Bush will sign it into law.
The bill allows e-mail marketers to send unsolicited messages
to users, but requires that an 'opt-out' mechanism be placed
in every message, giving consumers the opportunity to decline
additional mail. Many people will consider this an unacceptable
feature since it requires time and effort to decline further
annoyances.
Additionally, it prohibits false or misleading headers and
subject lines so that users can note the true origin of the
e-mail, and Internet providers and third-party spam filtering
firms can identify high-volume spammers.
Both the House and Senate versions contain fines and jail
time for offenders, but differ in amounts.
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the complete article
The main problem with spam is that it's a very innexpensive
method of direct advertising. Senders can make good money
if less than 1% of their target audience purchases something
(or falls for a "con"). The best way to fight spam
is to never, never, never purchase something from a spammer.
Think about it; do you really want to do business with someone
who's morals are so low that they spammed you in the first
place?
read more about
anti-spam software
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