[Ecommerce] SPAM: 41 bills pending in 18 states

[Manon Ress]

'Spam' Foes Change Their Focus To The States by Maureen Sirhal in
Technology Daily

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"There are more spam bills right now than all of last year," said Emily
Hackett, executive director of the Internet Alliance, a policy arm of
the Direct Marketing Association. So the group has urged its members to
focus their anti-spam energies on the states. 

Twenty states have laws regulating commercial e-mail in an attempt to
curb spam. And presently, 41 bills are pending in 18 states, Hackett
said. 

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Officials in four states -- Maine, Missouri, New Jersey and Utah --
introduced anti-spam measures in January. Most would regulate commercial
marketing to some degree by requiring that e-mails contain a label in
the header of the messages,warning recipients that the e-mail is an
advertisement. Other states are beginning to prohibit e-mails that
contain fraudulent or misleading routing information, which prevents
recipients from finding the senders. 

Anti-spam bills currently pending in the states include: 

H.B. 1487 in Maine, which would mandate that commercial e-mail include
accurate return addresses and a toll-free telephone number for consumers
to call to opt out of receiving future messages. 

H.B.1042 in Missouri, which would prohibit commercial e-mails with false
header information. 

A. 130 in New Jersey, which would prohibit individuals and businesses
from 
sending bulk commercial e-mail with misleading or false header
information. 

H.B. 80 in Utah, which would require that commercial e-mail identify the
sender's Internet service provider, home state, accurate return address
and valid domain names. It also would require an advertising label in
e-mail subject lines. 

Much of the state legislation aims to criminalize fraudulent information
in commercial e-mail, with the hope that accurate information would
enable consumers to reach the spammers and force them to remove
consumers' names from their lists.

Many of the states bills also would allow consumers to sue spammers for
damages. 
                       
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