S. 771 - Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Choice Act of 1997

This is slightly off-topic for the copyright list, but I know that a large number of subscribers would be interested in this nonetheless.

Today, May 21, U.S. Senator Frank H. Murkowski of Alaska introduced S. 771, the Unsolicited Commercial Electronic Mail Choice Act of 1997.

As I write this, the bill and today's Congressional Record is not yet on Thomas, but will probably be there by the time you read this.

Senator Murkowski has a web page devoted to the bill at

   http://www.senate.gov/~murkowski/commercialemail .

The basic provisions are that unsolicited commercial email:

1. must have a subject line that begins with the word "advertisement"; and
2. must prominently include the name, address, email address and telephone number of the spammer.

The FTC has jurisdiction to enforce the act, individuals may also sue in their individual capacities, and state attorneys general may bring an action on behalf of its residents.

--
Terry Carroll       | "The invention provides means for continuously
Santa Clara, CA     | trapping sparrows and supplying a cat and 
carroll[_at_]tjc.com     | neighborhood cats with a supply of sparrows."
Modell delenda est  |                - U.S. Patent no. 4,150,505