The Daily News, Longview, Wash., 1-26-99 "Spam Recipients May Soon Have More Legal Recourse" Washington residents tired of receiving junk email - "spam in computer lingo - soon may have more legal recourse against those who send the annoying messages promoting get-rich-quick schemes, pornography and the like. A bill filed in the House would expand the scope of a year old law, giving Internet service providers - which facilitate the delivery of email - the power to claim higher damages against spammers. It also would allow computer users to register electronic mail addresses in a state funded database that would make them out of bounds to would-be spammers. "We continue to lead the nation in moving to curtail the abuses," said Rep. Roger Bush, a Spanaway Republican and fifth grade teacher who sponsored the anti-spam law. "People are being hurt, businesses are being hurt. It's very bipartisan." The House Technology Telecommunications and Energy Committee was scheduled to take public testimony on the issue at a hearing today. Spam fell between the legislative cross hairs last year with the passage of a law banning mass mailers from disguising advertisements by putting misleading information in the header and subject line of emails, or by using another company's Internet name without permission. House Bill 1037 would plug some of the holes in that law at the recommendation of a task force that studied the issues last year, Bush said. It would require senders of commercial emails to include their names, addresses and telephone numbers in the body of the messages. Internet service providers could sue spammers who violate service provider policies on junk email and collect as much as $25,000 a day in fines, up from $1,000 currently. And consumers could go after spammers for damages of $500. Washington residents wishing to avoid junk email would be able to register their email addresses in a state funded database that would serve as notice to potential mass emails that registrants do not want to be spammed. Such a registry already exists, but it's provided voluntarily by the Washington Association of Internet Service Providers, or WAISP. Internet providers also can register, on behalf of themselves and their customers. ____________________ For text of the bill and its history, go to http://www.leg.wa.gov/wsladm/bills.htm Click on House Bill Information, then 1025-1049, then 1037 (the bill number) Shirley kworth@pacifier.com ICQ: 18990096 Yahoo Pager: Shirley_K77 Homespun~Country Kitchen: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~homespun/index.htm Disaster Relay: http://www.angelfire.com/ks/windshipgenhelp/ers.html Native American items: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Screen/7830 * Registered member of WAISP anti-spam efforts *