House Democrats Attack Tauzin Anti-Spam Bill

[Nambe]

Jupitermedia Corporation

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats, with the backing of a number of Republicans, are throwing their support behind an anti-spam bill that calls for more broadly defining spam and tougher criminal and civil penalties than the legislation favored by powerful House Energy and Commerce Chairman Billy Tauzin (R.-La.)and Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wisc.)

Sponsored by Heather Wilson (R.-N.M.) and Gene Green (D.- Tex.), the Anti-Spam Act of 2003 (H.R. 2515)would allow consumers to opt-out of all commercial e-mail as opposed to Tauzin's plan that calls for opt-out procedures only if the "primary purpose" of the message is commercial.

Neither bill would require opt-out procedures for e-mail from charities, religous groups, non-profit groups or political organizations. ---

Another difference between Tauzin's bill and the Wilson-Green proposal, Dingell noted, is that under the Tauzin legislation a consumer would be required to opt-out of each affiliate offering of a company while Wilson-Green takes a friendlier consumer approach.

"Simply stated, if affiliates can share a consumer's e-mail address, then they can also share that consumer's request to opt out of future spam," Dingell said of the Wilson-Green bill.

For his part, the often contentious Tauzin sounded a conciliatory note about the two bills. ---

Go to the Store!

Put a Lid on Your Liberal Brain!

[rocktivity]

1. I'm SICK of opting out--we need a law that prevents opting IN!

I'm sick of having to opt out of every piece of spam I recieve. They tell you your name will be removed in 2-5 days, spend those days bombarding you with even more spam, then probably sell your address to someone else. What we need is the equivalent of a "do not call list."

rocknation

[displacedtexan]

2. poor tauzin!

he's only trying to protect my god given freedom to learn how to weigh 12 pounds and have an enlarged penis.
<sarcasm off>

[damnraddem]

3. Make it easy to opt out. Allow general blocks on 'offereings.'

I use the 'block sender' feature on my PC now, but I get multiple mailings of the same spam from different 'sender' names.