An anti-spam bill in Indiana is headed to Gov. Frank O’Bannon’s desk for his consideration.
However, as of yesterday it was unclear whether O’Bannon would sign the bill into law.
The state’s House voted unanimously on Monday to accept some minor Senate changes in the bill.
House Bill 1083, sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Weinzapfel, D-Evansville, would allow recipients of unsolicited commercial e-mail in Indiana to sue senders for $500 for each piece of e-mail received in violation of the law.
It would also ban using third parties’ Internet domains without their permission, misrepresenting the source of the e-mail and using false or misleading subject lines, common practices used by spammers.
Indiana’s bill would also require “ADV:” to be the first four characters of the subject lines of unsolicited commercial e-mail and “ADV:ADLT” to be the first eight characters of the subject lines of adult commercial e-mail.
The bill also requires marketers to allow recipients to request their addresses be removed from their e-mail lists. After removing names from their lists, businesses would be prohibited from renting the addresses to any other businesses.
About half the states have anti-spam legislation on their books.
As a result, the Direct Marketing Association in October came out in favor of federal anti-spam legislation, reversing a long-held position.
