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 Category :: Spam |
Author :: Joe Reinbold  |
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| Article Title :: S.1618 - 105th Congress, Unsolicited Email! A Bunch of Bull! |
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Have you received email solicitations with this paragraph
included somewhere in the message:
"This message is sent in compliance with the new email bill
section 301. Under Bill S.1618 TITLE III passed by the 105th
U.S. Congress this message cannot be considered Spam as long as
we include the way to be removed, Paragraph (a)(c) of S.1618.
Further transmissions to you by the sender of this email may be
stopped at no cost to you by sending a request to be removed to
__"
Well it is, in plain language, a bunch of BULL!
U.S. Senate Bill 1618, an Anti-slamming Amendments Act,
contained a Section 301, relating to transmissions of
unsolicited commercial electronic mail. S.1618 was approved by
the U.S. Senate on May 12, 1998. It was then referred to the
House Committee on Commerce on October 21, 1998. The Bill DIED
in committee and was never passed into law by the 105th
Congress. Nor has the 106th Congress passed anything similar at
this time. I was able to confirm this information both by
checking the U.S. Senate records and specifically by an inquiry
with one of my Senators.
So first, the quoted paragraph above is in error since the bill
never became law. Secondly, if it did become law the messages I
generally receive citing the above, are quite deficient in
compliance with the alleged law that they reference. Here, in
part, are the exact requirements of the bill that would have
been law in respect to email if in fact the bill had passed:
------------------------- SEC. 301. REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO
TRANSMISSIONS OF UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL ELECTRONIC MAIL.
(a) INFORMATION TO BE INCLUDED IN TRANSMISSIONS-
(1) IN GENERAL- A person who transmits an unsolicited
commercial electronic mail message shall cause to appear in each
such electronic mail message the information specified in
paragraph (2).
(2) COVERED INFORMATION- The following information shall appear
at the beginning of the body of an unsolicited commercial
electronic mail message under paragraph (1):
(A) The name, physical address, electronic mail address, and
telephone number of the person who initiates transmission of the
message.
(B) The name, physical address, electronic mail address, and
telephone number of the person who created the content of the
message, if different from the information under subparagraph
(A).
(C) A statement that further transmissions of unsolicited
commercial electronic mail to the recipient by the person who
initiates transmission of the message may be stopped at no cost
to the recipient by sending a reply to the originating
electronic mail address with the word `remove' in the subject
line. ------------------------
How many messages citing this "Law" as justification for sending
you SPAM contain the items in Para. (2)(A) & (B). I haven't seen
any out of the 1000's I received. In fact, in those that I try
to send a message back to, the reply address is usually invalid.
Plus, even though they furnish you with a means at the end of
the message to "Remove" yourself from the mailings, it is
usually a false address or url when you actually try to remove
yourself.
This type of mis-information spreads like wildfire once someone
makes it up and pretty soon everybody takes it for the truth. It
is similar to all those emails, forwarded by the thousands,
proclaiming that Microsoft is going to pay you over $200 for
each person you forward the message to.
The use of this statement of the "Law" in sending unsolicited
email advertisements does not diminish the fact that they are
still SPAM no matter how a mailer tries to camouflage his or her
efforts. It should also make you think twice, no matter how
great the offer looks, about the integrity of the individual
and/or company sending it to you and whether you want to deal
with them..
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