| The recently enacted CAN-SPAM bill designed to curb unsolicited bulk email is a loophole ridden gift to the spam industry at the expense of the consumer. |
| The current administrations business-friendly/anti-consumer philosophy has prevented it from attacking even this scourge. The Bush administration's FTC position is that most spammers are already violating the law and therefore new laws regarding spam are not needed. Odd however that they have the resources to prosecute kids that swap music files over the internet at the behest of media corporations, while at the same time don't have the resources to go after the spammers at the behest of consumers. "This law does not stop a single spam from being sent," says Scott Hazen Mueller, chairman of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (CAUSE). "It only makes that spam slightly more truthful. It also gives a federal stamp of approval for every legitimate marketer in the U.S. to start using unsolicited e-mail as a marketing tool." The Internet Committee of the National Association of Attorneys General has steadily opposed the new federal law, saying key provisions are full of loopholes. [M]ore than anything, the attorneys general are incensed that the federal law supercedes state statutes that were often much more stringent. Thirty-seven states have enacted anti-spam laws. On Jan 1, California was set to replace a failed opt-out system with the nation's first "opt-in" law. Simply put, it would have required e-mail advertisers to get a consumer's permission before sending any unsolicited advertisements. "The federal proposals stick a fork in the eye of every Californian who's had their fill of spam," says California state Sen. Debra Bowen, who sponsored the opt-in legislation. "If Congress really wants to put spammers out of business, it would use California's new law as a model, put a bounty on the head of every single spammer and let as many people as possible go after them, just like we do with junk-faxers." Source: Dallas Morning News - "Spammers given a lift, experts say" by Doug Bedel -- Dec 20, 2003 Once again, the Republican led Congress and the Bush administration have teamed up to allow big business to operate unfettered at the expense of ordinary consumers. |
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