Text: New Jersey Lawmaker Advocates Anti-Spam Bill

(Lawmakers discuss unwanted electronic mail) (590)

Unsolicited electronic mail -- called spam in Internet vernacular -- is a growing source of annoyance for Internet users, and it's now drawing attention on Capitol Hill. New Jersey Representative Rush Holt, a Democrat, is sponsoring a bill to protect Internet users from this unwanted e-mail.

"It's time for the law to catch up with technology, Holt said in a November 2 press release. "This is an issue of consumer protection, privacy and private property."

The federal government has taken a restrained approach toward regulation of the Internet in its burgeoning growth over the last few years. Opponents of an aggressive regulatory policy by government agencies maintain that market forces are working to establish rules of conduct and policy in this new electronic world.

Holt describes his legislation as a "market-based approach," which would control unsolicited e-mail by allowing Internet Service Providers (ISP) the right to exercise a civil cause of action against unsolicited e-mailers. This legal standing would allow an ISP to impose stiff fines on those who use its service to distribute mass mailings of unsolicited electronic messages.

Holt's bill, known as the "Can Spam Act," was discussed at a November 3 hearing on the spamming issue held by the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications Trade and Consumer Protection. The issue is still pending.

Following is the text of the Holt statement

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11/2/99

REP. HOLT PUSHES "CAN SPAM ACT" ON CAPITOL HILL

Washington D.C. - Today, Rep. Rush Holt (D-12th District-N.J.) continued his battle to protect Internet consumers from unsolicited junk and commercial e-mail -- otherwise known as spam -- by supporting the "Can Spam Act" with a bipartisan coalition of Internet user groups and anti-pornography advocates. Rep. Holt participated in a presentation by the Progressive Policy Institute and a press conference with the bill's cosponsors on the eve of the hearing on the bill scheduled before the House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications on Wednesday.

"This market-based approach will restore sanity to the realm of unsolicited commercial Internet e-mail," said Rep. Holt. "Internet providers need to have the ability to protect themselves and their consumers,"

The "Can Spam Act" would restrict spam by allowing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to protect their property and their customers. This approach is the most workable and market based solution ever proposed to address the serious problem of spam because it would vest ISPs with the power to control spam as they see fit. ISPs would be given a civil cause of action against unsolicited commercial e-mailers for $50 per message, up to $25,000 per day. Most legislative solutions to spam proposed to date have bogged down because they would be ineffective or are perceived as too restrictive of free speech on the Internet.

"This approach offers a market-based solution to spamming," says Rep. Holt. "It puts the power to control spam into the hands of the Internet Service Provider and Internet consumers. We can avoid the Pandora's Box of government designing the rules and procedures for unsolicited commercial email advertisements. That's a road we need not go down."

"It is time for the law to catch up with technology, especially in the case of spam where families and businesses are forced to receive large amounts of objectionable material over the Internet. This is an issue of consumer protection, privacy and private property," Holt concluded.

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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State)