US Senate takes another crack at spam bill

Two US Senators yesterday reintroduced a bill designed to reduce the plague of spam that has been spreading over the internet for the last couple of years, with backing from a number of notable e-commerce firms.

The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (or Can-Spam Act) would allow state attorneys general to sue spammers on behalf of the public. It would also allow the Federal Trade Commission to levy fines.

The bill is sponsored by Republican Conrad Burns of Montana and Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon. The bill made it through the Senate committee process last year, but was never put up for a vote in the Senate proper.

The unanimous passage of the CAN-SPAM bill out of the Commerce Committee shows the strong bipartisan support that we have, and now it’s time to move forward, Burns said in a statement. This legislation has been on hold for too long.

By rough consensus, about 40% of email traffic in the US is believed to be spam, making it less of an individual nuisance and more of a business productivity and liability problem. AOL, eBay and Yahoo are backing the Can-Spam Act, according to Burns.

Source: Computerwire

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