During the last few years, courts have increasingly found
that junk e-mail is illegal if it violates an Internet Service
Provider's terms of service, uses an ISPs domain name or trademark
without authorization, falsifies point-of-origin information,
or otherwise deceives recipients. Courts have found senders
of spam to be liable for damages and injunctive relief under
several federal statutes, including the Lanham Act, the Federal
Trademark Dilution Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and
have also ruled that spammers may be liable under state-law
claims, such as interference with personal property, if the
spam has imposed a cost or other injury upon the plaintiff.
What kind of anti-spamming legislation has been proposed?
Unfortunatly spam legislation has not yet been enacted at the
federal level. Recently, the Unsolicited Electronic Mail
Act of 2001 (H.R. 95) was introduced in the House of Representatives.
H.R. 95 would require unsolicited commercial e-mail messages
to be labelled and to include opt-out instructions, and would
prohibit false routing information in such messages. It
also would prohibit the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mail
in violation of an Internet service provider's policies as long
as the provider has prominently posted its policies.
The proposed law provides for criminal penalties for fraudulent
routing information; FTC enforcement; and civil suits that may
recover the greater of actual damages or statutory damages of
$500 per violation (to a maximum of $50,000), as well as punitive
damages, costs, and attorneys' fees.
Many states have enacted statutes that restrict spam.
Usually, these statutes: (1) prohibit the use of false
routing information; (2) require the e-mail to contain effective
opt-out instructions so that a recipient can ask to be removed
from the spammer's mailing list; (3) require the e-mail to contain
a label; and/or (4) prohibit the use of misleading information
in the subject line of the message. For example, California
Assembly Bill 1629 permits ISPS to sue those who, having notice
of an ISPs policy, send unsolicited commercial messages in violation
of that policy. Another California statute, Assembly Bill 1676,
requires unsolicited e- mail advertisements to provide for and
honor opt-out requests and requires ads to be labelled as such
in the subject line of the e-mail. Maryland House Bill 140 (Senate
Bill 222) prohibits the use of e-mail with an intent to harass
but includes an exception for "peaceable activity intended
to express political views or provide information to others."
The Virginia law, House Bill 1668 (Senate Bill 881), which is
effective July 1, 1999, makes it a crime to falsify or forge
e-mail message transmission information in connection with unsolicited
bulk e- mail and also to knowingly sell, give, distribute, or
possess software whose principal purpose is to facilitate unsolicited
bulk e-mail. The Virginia law permits both ISPs and individuals
to obtain damages. Washington House Bill 2752 prohibits false
headers and misleading subject lines in unsolicited commercial
e-mail messages sent or received from Washington state. The
Washington law allows recipients of unsolicited commercial e-mail
to collect $500 for each occurrence.
Since the spam laws vary from country to country as well as
state to state please use the links provided to review the current
laws in your area.
US STATE SPAM LAWS
EUROPEAN SPAM LAWS
NON-EUROPEAN SPAM LAWS
This information is provided by
David E. Sorkin
http://www.spamlaws.com/
Please take a moment to write to your
congressmen about protecting your privacy and passing stronger
anti-spam laws!
There are number of new laws pending without your support they
will not get passed. Let your congressmen know that we want stronger
privacy protections. For more information see our legal
section.
Additional Info on Spamming
Laws & Regulations Against Spam
How do spammers get people's email
addresses?
Spam Fighter's Toolkit
How and Where to Report Spam Abuse
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