Strong federal measure is needed to even partially curb junk e-mail

Published: Thursday, November 6, 2003 at 3:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, November 6, 2003 at 12:00 a.m.

Both houses of Congress have passed bills that would restrict spam, the junk e-mail that clogs your inbox, but the bills should be stronger.

Spam is not just an inconvenience. It's a burden on businesses that saps productivity. Experts estimate that handling spam costs businesses as much as $87 billion a year.

When someone spams the employees in your business, they steal space on your computer network. They hijack your business' infrastructure to send their advertising. And they steal your employees' time as workers are forced to wade through this trash, much of it pornographic, to clear out their inbox.

It truly should be illegal. And because most spam travels across state boundaries on the Internet, it should be banned in federal law.

But the bills under consideration don't go far enough. The Senate bill, in particular, merely suggests possible measures to the Federal Trade Commission. Congress needs to go further and demand action.

At a minimum, bulk advertising e-mail should have to include an "ADV" tag in the subject line of the e-mail message. You could then set up your e-mail program to screen out such messages.

Another worthwhile measure would be to establish a do-not-spam registry similar to the do-not-call registry the government has established to deal with the telemarketing industry. Citizens could register their e-mail addresses, and bulk e-mailers would be prohibited from using them.

Even these measures wouldn't end spam. Some of it comes from other countries, and some particularly virulent spammers are so good at covering their tracks that they would be able to evade the law.

But consumers and businesses deserve any help they can get from the government in dealing with the rising flood of spam.

Congress also needs to make sure that it doesn't pre-empt stronger laws passed by the states. The legislation should explicitly declare that states can enact tougher standards.

As House and Senate conferees meet to merge the two bills, they should concentrate on creating a measure that is as strong as possible.

This story appeared in print on page A10


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