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The Anti-Spam Smorgasbord
by Chloe AlbanesiusCalifornia residents could be seeing a lot less spam in their e-mail inboxes. The state Assembly's Business and Professions Committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would ban all unsolicited commercial e-mail, regardless of whether it is from a legitimate business or deceptive spammer.
The rules would be tougher than those under a 1998 anti-spam statute. That law, the first of its kind in the states, requires that consumers be given the contact information of the senders of e-mails so they can stop receiving messages. The new bill, S.B. 186, would only allow firms to send commercial e-mail to consumers they have had contact with in the past.
Violators of the law would face a $1,000 penalty per e-mail, with a maximum charge of up to $1 million. The bill is now before the Assembly's Appropriations Committee.
Jim Prendergast of Americans for Technology Leadership said in a statement that the bill would give consumers "more tools to fight spam without placing unreasonable restrictions on technology companies." To end spam entirely, however, he said would require "a united front of consumers, technology and legislation to combat the problem."
Prendergast praised the lawsuits Microsoft filed against spammers last month as "a positive step in the industry's battle against spam." Microsoft used a Washington anti-spam law for its U.S. filings because it "has strong statutes for consumer protections," said Tim Cranton, senior corporate attorney at Microsoft.
Washington was the second state to pass an anti-spam law and is the "only one that has been challenged in the state level," said Steve Larsen, head of the cyber-crime unit in the office of the state's attorney general.
Cranton said the statute addresses three misleading practices: deceptive e-mail lines, unauthorized uses of domains in e-mail headers and obscuring information in the headers. He said Microsoft, which is based in Washington, examined several anti-spam statutes, including those in California and Virginia, before settling on Washington because it was "perfect for our circumstances."
The law is unique in that it was "recently modified in our district court ... to allow individuals to bring out-of-state defendants into Washington," Larsen said. That became useful for Microsoft when it targeted a California hacker to "assert a claim under the Washington statute" when filing trademark claims in a Los Angeles-based federal court, Cranton said.
Under the Washington law, spammers can be fined up to $500 for each deceptive message, and Internet service providers who violate the law face fines of up to $1,000.
Elsewhere on the anti-spam front, Indiana cleared a bill, H.B. 1083, that took effect on July 1. It requires tags in the headers of e-mails that identify relevant messages as advertisements. Marketers also must remove from their e-mail lists those consumers who asked to be dropped.
Virginia also toughened its anti-spam rules, increasing penalties and making second offenses for obscenity violations a felony rather than a misdemeanor. In addition, it is now illegal to falsify network information in order to prevent authorities from tracing the origins of bulk e-mails. "We want the Internet to be a safe tool for all of us to use," Attorney General Jerry Kilgore said in a statement. "Getting a better handle on spam will go a long way toward accomplishing that goal."
News.com reports that the Michigan Senate passed an anti-spam measure, S.B. 357, that would create a statewide registry of people who do not want to receive unsolicited messages. And Federal Computer Week reports that Arlington County, Va., is now using integrated security technology from Symantec to protect against spam and computer viruses.
Virginia Issues 'Passports' For ID Theft
Virginia Attorney General Kilgore on Tuesday began a campaign against identity theft by distributing "identity-theft passports" to victims of the crime.
The program lets Virginia citizens whose personal information has been stolen file papers with the attorney general's office to receive such passports. The victims of ID theft then can use the passports to protect themselves against arrest for crimes committed by people who uses their identities illegally and to shield them from losses if the criminals access banking information.
In other news, an Indiana statute broadening that state's definition of ID theft took effect this week. The measure, S.B. 320, expands the current definition of harming or defrauding another person to include assuming someone else's identity.
Taking Note Of Technology Achievements
Democratic Rep. Major Owens of New York was one of 10 honorees at a reception hosted by the Community Technology Centers' Network and Hewlett-Packard last week. The people were honored for their efforts to ensure equitable access to technology.
Owens was cited for his work with the Brooklyn Technology to Empower Community Watch Alliance, an organization that he co-chairs. In 2002, the alliance provided community organizations, schools, the private sector and government offices in New York City with $1 million in extended technology access and programs. It also created eight laboratories in three of the five city boroughs and started the Major Owens Animation and Virtual Reality Lab at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn.
In other news, Gordon Black, chairman and CEO of the market research firm Harris Interactive, was honored last week as the 2003 Ernst & Young Upstate New York Entrepreneur of the Year for his work in online market research.
Intel's Gary Haycox, meanwhile, was elected to the board of the Regional Alliance for Infrastructure and Network Security (RAINS), which develops and deploys technology for homeland security. The alliance thus far coordinated a working relationship among the state of Oregon, six research universities, more than 60 high-tech companies and various local "first responders" to emergencies.
Tech News In Texas, Pennsylvania And Delaware
Texas Instruments announced on Monday that it will build a $3 billion chip-making plant in Richardson, Texas, Reuters reports. Organizers are expected to break ground in 2005 for what Gov. Rick Perry said will be the largest private-sector development project in Texas history.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic Rep. Mike Doyle announced his sponsorship for the Doyle Center for Manufacturing Technology. The Pittsburgh-based center will assist small manufacturing enterprises and be funded via a $1.5 million award from the Air Force Research Lab.
The Delaware state legislature, meanwhile, ended its regular session this week, having cleared two tech-related bills of note into law.
One bill, H.B. 33, provides online access to the names of recently released sex offenders via the Delaware State Police's sex-offender registry. The other measure, H.B. 4, expands the duties of the Technology Investment Council to seek partnering opportunities with rivals in order to improve important areas of tech deployment.
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