July 1, 2002
Ed. Note: Are you tired of getting your e-mail account(s) bombarded with Spam (UCE, or Unsolicited Commercial E-mail)? Are you tired of seeing your own e-mail address faked by the spammers so that it looks like you did send the UCE yourself? Are you tired of pyramid schemes, Nigerian frauds, penis enlargement, breast enlargement, herbal Viagra, get-rich-doing-nothing, and all the scams under the sky? Are you tired of paying for it all (you do!)? Then, fight back! * Progress of Senate anti-spam bill Over a year ago, Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) introduced S.630, the CAN SPAM Act of 2001. This bill would require UCE to have a valid return address to facilitate consumers' removal from spam lists. It would place enforcement in the hands of the Federal Trade Commission, and state Attorneys General. It would also permit Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to enforce violations, up to $10 per illegal spam. It would preempt any stricter state anti-spam laws. The Senate Commerce Committee considered the bill on May 17th, and reported it out largely unchanged. It's not now scheduled for further action in the Senate. CAUCE has always opposed this bill, since we believe it would lead to more spam, not less. When South Korea passed a similar opt-out law last year, spam from Korea soon increased by a factor of 10. Our April 2001 press release goes into more detail about the problems with S.630: http://www.cauce.org/pressreleases/pr-s630.shtml We're pleased that the Congress is looking at spam issues again, and hope that in the future we can help them create an effective bill that the entire Internet community can support. - -------------------------------------------------------------- * European Union bans spam GLOBAL INTERNET COMMUNITY APPLAUDS EUROPEAN ANTI-SPAM VOTE May 31, 2002 - The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (CAUCE), EuroCAUCE, CAUCE India, CAUCE Canada and the Coalition Against Unsolicited Bulk E-Mail, Australia (CAUBE.au) today applauded the decision by the European Parliament to protect European Internet users from the practice of unsolicited e-mail advertisements. Yesterday's vote will turn Europe into a virtual "spam-free zone" after the formal adoption of the directive, making it illegal to send unsolicited e-mail, text message or other similar advertisements to individuals with whom companies do not have a preexisting business relationship. "This is a tremendous day for European Internet users," said EuroCAUCE Chairman George Mills. "We are extremely pleased that the European Parliament has listened to the citizens of its member countries and added the right to be left alone by spammers to its efforts to protect the privacy of Europeans." While six European Union member countries had already formalized "opt-in" in their national laws and regulations, yesterday's vote should turn all of Europe into a spam-free zone by the end of 2003. "Unfortunately, the rest of the world's Internet-using countries, including the United States, now lag behind Europe in their protection of Internet users," said CAUCE Chairman Scott Hazen Mueller. "This is a tremendous first step, but the rest of the world now needs to follow Europe's lead and unite behind protection of Internet users and network owners from abusive and costly unsolicited e-mail advertising." "This decision is the direct result of Internet users throughout the European Union standing up for their rights, and Members of the European Parliament listening to their constituents," said Mills. "Our members and our volunteers performed an integral part of this process, translating, lobbying and educating their representatives." More information on the E.U. directive is available on the European Parliament's Web site http://www.europarl.eu.int/press/index_en.htm, and a EuroCAUCE analysis is available at http://www.euro.cauce.org/en/amendments1a.html. More information on the international CAUCE network of affiliate organizations is available at http://www.cauce.org. · · · · · ·
References and Actions to Take This message was written and broadcast by the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail. It is copyrighted (c) 2002 by the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail. Fight back! Join http://www.cauce.org Write your Member of Congress! Go to http://www.cauce.org/congress/writecongress.shtml to find out how you can help, what to say, the points to emphasize... Take action! Initiate! See http://spam.abuse.net/userhelp/howtocomplain.shtml for a good guide on complaining to a spammer's provider (spam.abuse.net is one of the best anti-spam sites on the Net which you may consider joining too). (CAUCE, The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email is an ad hoc, all volunteer organization, created by Netizens to advocate for a legislative solution to the problem of UCE (aka "spam"). The real SPAM, on the other hand, is a fine product by Hormel Foods. SPAM is a registered trademark of Hormel Foods, LLC, for luncheon meat.) |
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