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Re: FW: [Asrg] Anyone have the text on this bill?

2003-04-11 14:01:29
Found it.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c107:1:./temp/~c107B15RJW:e1153:

Note that it attempts to define consent.

(1) AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT- The term `affirmative consent', when used with respect to a commercial electronic mail message, means--

(A) the message falls within the scope of an express and unambiguous invitation or permission granted by the recipient and not subsequently revoked;

(B) the recipient had clear and conspicuous notice, at the time such invitation or permission was granted, of--

(i) the fact that the recipient was granting the invitation or permission;

(ii) the scope of the invitation or permission, including what types of commercial electronic mail messages would be covered by the invitation or permission and

what senders or types of senders, if any, other than the party to whom the invitation or permission was communicated would be covered by the invitation or permission; and

(iii) a reasonable and effective mechanism for revoking the invitation or permission; and

(C) the recipient has not, after granting the invitation or permission, submitted a request under section 5(a)(3) not to receive unsolicited commercial electronic mail messages from the sender of the message.

and

(9) IMPLIED CONSENT- The term `implied consent', when used with respect to a commercial electronic mail message, means--

(A) within the 5-year period ending upon receipt of such message, there has been a business transaction between the sender and the recipient (including a transaction involving the provision, free of charge, of information, goods, or services requested by the recipient); and

(B) the recipient was, at the time of such transaction or thereafter, provided a clear and conspicuous notice of an opportunity not to receive unsolicited commercial electronic mail messages from the sender and has not exercised such opportunity.

it also defines return address as being more than just a temporary drop box:

(7) Functioning return electronic mail address-

(A) The term `functioning return electronic mail address' means a legitimately obtained electronic mail address, clearly and conspicuously displayed in a commercial electronic mail message, that--

(i) remains capable of receiving messages for no less than 30 days after the transmission of such commercial electronic mail message; and

(ii) that has capacity reasonably calculated, in light of the number of recipients of the commercial electronic mail message, to enable it to receive the full expected quantity of reply messages from such recipients.

(B) An electronic mail address that meets the requirements of subparagraph (A) shall not be excluded from this definition because of a temporary inability to receive electronic mail messages due to technical problems, provided steps are taken to correct such technical problems within a reasonable time period.

There is an amusing exception to unsolicited email--namely notice of copyright or trademark violation.

On the false or misleading side of things, it says (among other things).

(1) PROHIBITION OF FALSE OR MISLEADING TRANSMISSION INFORMATION- It shall be unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission, to a protected computer, of a commercial electronic mail message that contains, or is accompanied by, header information that is materially or intentionally false or misleading, or not legitimately obtained.

So if you modify the headers of your email to make it look like it came from Outlook Express when it did not, it seems to me that might fall under this category.

In addition it has prohibitions against deceptive subject headers, not having a return address to which one can ask to be unsubscribed (hmm, that's not quite how mailing lists work). It also requires:

(5) INCLUSION OF IDENTIFIER, OPT-OUT, AND PHYSICAL ADDRESS IN UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL- It shall be unlawful for any person to initiate the transmission of any unsolicited commercial electronic mail message to a protected computer unless the message provides, in a manner that is clear and conspicuous to the recipient--

(A) identification that the message is an advertisement or solicitation;

(B) notice of the opportunity under paragraph (3) to decline to receive further unsolicited commercial electronic mail messages from the sender; and

(C) a valid physical postal address of the sender.

And, someone seems to be listening to the issue of whether this legitimizes other spam (e.g. non-commercial).

(b) NO EFFECT ON POLICIES OF PROVIDERS OF INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE- Nothing in this Act shall

be construed to have any effect on the lawfulness or unlawfulness, under any other provision of law, of the adoption, implementation, or enforcement by a provider of Internet access service of a policy of declining to transmit, route, relay, handle, or store certain types of electronic mail messages.

and it has this follow-on

Not later than 18 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commission, in consultation with the Department of Justice and other appropriate agencies, shall submit a report to the Congress that provides a detailed analysis of the effectiveness and enforcement of the provisions of this Act and the need (if any) for the Congress to modify such provisions.

--
Kee Hinckley
http://www.messagefire.com/          Junk-Free Email Filtering
http://commons.somewhere.com/buzz/   Writings on Technology and Society

I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.
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