On October 22, 2003, the U.S. Senate passed a bill (S. 877, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003), which is geared towards, as the title of the bill states, “Controlling the Assault of Non-solicited Pornography and Marketing.”  The bill, if passed through the House of Representatives as is, would target senders of unsolicited commercial email that disguise their identity and make it illegal to use a false return address or misleading subject line.  The harvesting of addresses from web sites would also be outlawed.  In addition, there will be a requirement for e-mails to include an opt-out feature so that recipients can request to be taken off the sender’s list.  

This is a tremendous step towards the creation of a national policy and the fight against spam.  We here at IMN support this bill and hope that through its passage there will be a single, predictable standard that can be implemented across the country.  Right now, there are 36 states that have passed their own spam statutes and this is creating a difficult situation for legitimate businesses that use email.  California, for instance, recently passed a law that could go into effect in January of 2004 which would be daunting for any business that engages with prospects or customers in California through email as well as for companies that are based in California and who do business through e-marketing. 

While the CAN-SPAM Act would not be a panacea for spam, it would at least be a step in the right direction.  Even if this bill is passed, there are unanswered questions such as:  How would the law be enforced?  Who would be liable?  How would it be implemented?  We here at IMN believe that laws such as this one are only part of the solution and we also support the technological initiatives that are being proposed.

One such action in this area is Project Lumos, an initiative of the Email Service Providers Coalition (ESPC).  Project Lumos is, as the ESPC’s site describes, “a registry-based model developed to eliminate spam by holding senders accountable for the mail they send. Project Lumos implements true sender accountability and transparency by requiring that senders fully verify their identity, and adhere to best practices, and then objectively monitoring their performance.”

Essentially, Project Lumos would help create a “trusted sender” program, where e-marketers and ISPs who send large volumes of email would be registered and certified.   This approach would create standards and a scoring scheme that would begin to separate legitimate e-marketers from the illegal, bogus spammers.

As both the Senate bill and initiatives like Project Lumos move forth, I’ll keep you apprised of the progress in future columns of Industry Perspective.  And if you’re in favor of the CAN-SPAM Act, you can write your House and Senate representatives and express your support.

If you have questions regarding this pending legislation or on spam, please email me .