The Consumer Anti-Slamming Act goes before the House of Congress this week with the controversial Murkowski-Torricelli amendment in place, and anti-spam groups are protesting that direct marketers have been given the run of the proceedings while they are being denied a voice. Representatives from both the Forum for Responsible and Ethical Email (FREE), instigator of the pink web page protest against the Murkowski-Torricelli amendment (CI No 3,422), and the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE), are unhappy that they have not been invited to present their views to the House. Of the nine non-congressional speakers scheduled to present their views, one, Jerry Cerasale, represents the Direct Marketing Association and another, Dierdre Mulligan of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), has accepted funding from the DMA. FREE and CAUCE oppose the Murkowski-Torricelli amendment, which they say will legitimize certain forms of junk e-mail and give every spammer one free bite at netizens. The anti-spam campaigners are urging net users to support an alternative bill, the Netizens Protection Act (HR 1748), proposed by Republican Representative Christopher Smith, of New Jersey. This Act would extend the current ban on junk faxes to email.
