[Asrg] Article - New anti-spam proposal in the House of Representative

Below is a CNET News.com article about a new anti-spam proposal in the House:

http://news.com.com/2100-1025-1009467.html

Some highlights:
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* Nobody may send "any commercial electronic mail message" unless it 
permits the recipient to unsubscribe, includes a valid return e-mail 
address and street address, and makes it obvious that the e-mail is an 
advertisement or solicitation. There is no requirement for an "ADV:" notice 
in the subject line, which other proposals would mandate. If the recipient 
chooses to unsubscribe, the person sending the e-mail may not make contact 
again until a three-year period has elapsed.

* An Internet service provider (ISP) could sue for damages of $10 for each 
e-mail sent to someone who "opted out," up to a maximum of $500,000. 
Lawsuits must be brought in federal court, and if a judge decides that the 
accused spammer "knowingly" violated the law, total damages would triple to 
$1.5 million.

* False or misleading header information would be banned. State attorneys 
general could sue violators and seek damages of up to $3 million. The FTC 
and the U.S. Justice Department also would have jurisdiction. They would 
receive the additional power to sue people who don't include the necessary 
identification information in commercial e-mail.

* Inclusion of "sexually oriented material" in any commercial e-mail 
message would become a federal crime, unless the sender follows regulations 
to be devised by the FTC. Violators of the rule would be punished by up to 
two years in a federal prison. It would also become a federal crime to send 
any commercial e-mail that "falsifies the sender's identity"

* If an ISP were harmed by those two types of messages--unlawful sex e-mail 
or those with false identification--it could sue for damages of $500 for 
each e-mail.

* It would become unlawful to send commercial e-mail to an address that was 
obtained from an automated scan of a Web site.

* No class-action lawsuits on behalf of spam recipients would be allowed.
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Yakov Shafranovich / <research@solidmatrix.com>
SolidMatrix Research, a division of SolidMatrix Technologies, Inc.
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"One who watches the wind will never sow, and one who keeps his eyes on
the clouds will never reap" (Ecclesiastes 11:4)
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