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The New Anti-Spam Sheriff In Town
by Chloe Albanesius
Now that President Bush is set to sign federal anti-spam legislation, states with their own laws on the issue face the prospect of pre-emption. "State spam laws are pre-empted unless they prohibit falsity or deception or are not spam-specific," FTC attorney Brian Huseman said during a Wednesday teleconference on the federal measure.
The federal legislation would let states like New York that have weaker statutes enforce laws concerning deceptive e-mails. But states with tough anti-spam laws, like the California law banning all commercial e-mail that is set to take effect Jan. 1, will be pre-empted.
The bill would provide state attorneys general and Internet service providers with certain powers. States could collect fines of up to $250 per violation, with a $2 million cap, unless violations are willful and aggravated, in which case fines could be tripled. States also could impose injunctions on defendants in anti-spam cases, Huseman said.
The federal measure also would eliminate language in some state laws that call for "ADV" tags in the subject lines of commercial e-mails to indicate that they are advertisements, it would deny individual consumers the right to sue people for sending illegal e-mail pitches. A summary of state anti-spam laws compiled by John Marshall Law School professor David Sorkin shows that numerous states, some of which enacted laws this year, would be affected by the pre-emption of labels.
Nicole Wong, a partner with the law firm of Perkins Coie, said the pre-emption "provides uniformity ... after years of trying to harmonize state laws [but] shouldn't be interpreted as immunity from state law practices."
Ken Hirschman, vice president and general counsel at the e-mail marketing firm Digital Impact, said the pre-emption is a "huge relief for marketers," and he praised the decision not to let individuals sue but to leave any punishments within government hands. "At the state level, only when there were individual rights of action given out did we find a tremendous amount of nuisance suits," he said. "Wiping that away is a great relief."
Virginia Adapts To Changing Global Market
Virginia is "playing a different role in the global economic marketplace," said George Newstrom, the state's technology secretary.
The keynote speaker last week at a luncheon of the British-American Business Association, Newstrom said in an interview afterward that Britain is "our strongest ally in the world [and] a continuation of ties ... is foremost" in the mind of Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat.
Newstrom said Warner gave him three tasks when Newstrom became tech secretary: examine technology in the state as a chief information officer; reposition Virginia in the global economic marketplace, specifically around a tech-based schedule; and focus tech improvements on all of Virginia, not just certain cities.
Virginia must "retrain, re-skill the workforce" in areas that have lost industries like mining or tobacco and "take advantage of this technology-based economy," Newstrom said. "The real emphasis is what we do to get our companies in Virginia positioned [for success]. It's easy for the international companies, global companies. ... It's not easy if you're a small business."
The state also must focus its efforts on education so that it produces a more competitive workforce, he said.
Texas Consortium Expects $3 Million Grant
The Texas Engineering and Technical Consortium (TETC) on Tuesday announced it is scheduled to receive $3 million from the federal government if, as expected, the omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2004 now before Congress becomes law.
Texas lawmakers would match that funding in an effort to increase the number of electrical engineering and computer science graduates from Texas universities.
"This federal commitment says a great deal about the belief this Congress has in the criticality of increasing engineering talent to grow the economy of the United States and keep our technological edge," said TETC Chairwoman Tegwin Pulley of Texas Instruments.
TETC is a two-year-old public-private partnership comprised of nine private companies, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and 34 colleges and universities in Texas. The companies, which include Hewlett-Packard and Intel, thus far have donated more than $4 million that has been matched by the Texas government.
Also on the education front, Microsoft and the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher on Tuesday announced that they will donate 400 IBM laptops with Microsoft software to charitable and educational organizations in the nine U.S. cities where the law firm operates. Gibson Dunn recently converted to wireless technology and purchased new laptops, leaving it with a surplus of machines less than three years old. It teamed with Microsoft's southern California team to donate computers in California, Colorado, New York, Texas and Washington, D.C.
State CIOs Offer Advice On Tech Systems
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) last week unveiled a program designed to help state and local governments develop and mature their programs to create technology frameworks. A program assessment process will be available for download at the organization's Web site.
"Individual state assessments will ... guide the states in attaining the next level of maturity" for their tech systems, said Gerry Wethington, Missouri's CIO and NASCIO's president. Teams of architects will assess systems, and results will be compiled from participating states to provide a national profile of the programs. The U.S. Justice Department provided funding for the endeavor.
Maryland Unveil Sites For Teens, Exercisers
Maryland Attorney General Joseph Curran on Wednesday unveiled a new consumer Web site aimed at teenagers.
"Wisebuys for Teens" will feature information ranging from the importance of reading the fine print in ads to how to avoid scams. "Our site reinforces the lessons being taught in some of our schools that being a smart consumer requires vigilance and restraint," Curran said in a statement.
And last week, Curran's office debuted a Web site that will let residents who are thinking about joining health clubs check whether those clubs are properly registered and bonded.
North Dakota Issues Warning To Florida Telemarketer
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehejem on Wednesday ordered a Florida company to "cease and desist" its calls to North Dakota residents who signed a "do not call" list against telemarketing. Stenehejem reported that Debt Management Foundation continued to use pre-recorded messages offering credit counseling after the state's list took effect.
"This company, like so many others, peddles its credit-counseling services by making inflated claims, such as promising consumers interest rates as low as 1.5 percent," Stenehejem said in a release. The company could face civil penalties of up to $2,000 per pre-recorded message.
Macro Help For New York's Micro Enterprises
Democratic New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday was on hand in Troy, N.Y., to introduce MicroBizNY, New York's first statewide micro enterprise association. The group will work to promote enterprise opportunities for low-income people and communities in the state.
A micro enterprise is one with five or fewer employees and limited access to capital and the traditional commercial banking sector. New York was on of the few states that did not have a formal micro enterprise association.
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