Month: December 2003

Here’s my analysis of the new law:

1. More spammers will operate off shore. This means, even more spam, even the bad stuff (child pornography, scam’s etc.) will be out of US jurisdiction. As of now, at least some, comes from places within US law’s coverage. Now it will be less.

2. The biggest issue:

As CAUCE notes:

This legislation fails the most fundamental test of any anti-spam law, in that it neglects to actually tell any marketers not to spam. Instead, it gives each marketer in the United States one free shot at each consumer’s e-mail inbox,

Now here is where the removal clause can end up doing more harm than not:

People will be under the impression that removing email is as easy as clicking “unsubscribe”, which it may be for several US based spammers, who decide to obey the laws.

But how do you know it’s within the US, and removing? Or outside the US, and confirming your email address for spammers?

There is my issue. Congress has passed a bill that actually does the complete opposite of what it is intended to do. While it’s nice to see them caring about the issue. They have made the problem much worse. They are telling millions of people to confirm their email address with offshore spammers.

Now imagine this:

Not only is the spammer out of US law’s control, but Congress told the American people to confirm their email address with spammers outside the country.

This can actually have very negative consequences on the economy, as email is used widely throughout US businesses. Now imagine spam becoming more costly.

Are we having fun yet?

Spread the word that this bill is a very bad thing, and should be scrapped and redone. It’s flawed throughout, and poses to increase, rather than decrease spam. The complete opposite of the said intent of the bill.