The Unsolicited Electronic Mail Act, H.R. 3113, was passed yesterday by the House Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection. The revised bill was introduced by three members of Congress in an effort to end the transmission of unsolicited commercial e-mail.
It will now go to the House Commerce Committee for a vote, but a date has not yet been set.
The bill, proposed by Reps. Heather Wilson, R-NM; Gary Miller, R-CA; and Gene Green, D-TX, will:
o Require accurate return addresses on unsolicited commercial e-mail.
o Make it illegal to send spam to people who have requested to be removed from a list.
o Make it illegal to cull e-mail addresses from Internet registrars.
o Require spam to be identified as such.
o Require Internet service providers to protect their customers from spam if the ISP profits from allowing spam into its system.
o Allow individuals to sue spammers.
o Allow ISPs to have a spam policy and sue spammers for $500 per message if they violate the policy.
o Authorize the Federal Trade Commission to prosecute spammers who violate this law.
