[Ecommerce] Colorado spam bill distinction between commerical and non-commerical

[James Love]

The text of the Colorado bill that I posted to ecommerce does not appear
to be the current version, because it exempts non-profits and political
organizations, and I believe those exemptions have been eliminated.
However, the restrictions on SPAM appear to limited to unsolicited
commercial announcements, which are defined as:

     "UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL MESSAGE"
      MEANS AN ELECTRONIC MAIL MESSAGE SENT WITHOUT THE RECIPIENT'S
      EXPRESSED PERMISSION FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROMOTING REAL PROPERTY,
      GOODS, OR SERVICES FOR SALE OR LEASE;

So it would seem to this layman that the law would not address messages
that were not commerical in content, regardless of who sends them.

The Colordo bill seems to be consistent with the TACD statement
regarding unsolicited commercial email, although there may be some
discussion regarding the TACD comment regarding distinctions between
commercial and non-commercial speech, and the issue of the need to
coordinate these policies globally.  Here is the TACD statement:

                                              
                Unsolicited Commercial Email


                  The use of unsolicited commercial email is a growing
burden for persons who use email. Consumers need better mechanisms to
control and manage unwanted commercial solicitations. This is an
international problem. Governments need to work together to develop
common approaches to address consumer concerns about unsolicited
commercial email. One approach would be to require labelling of
unsolicited commercial solicitations by electronic mail, so that
consumers or Internet service providers can better manage such
information. Such approaches should recognize the distinction between
commercial and non-commercial speech. TACD asks the US and the EU to
report on efforts to coordinate the development of international
mechanisms to address the problem of unsolicited commercial email.


 Jamie




-- 
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
v. 1.202.387.8030, fax 1.202.234.5176
love@cptech.org, http://www.cptech.org